CCRKBA CHALLENGES CHIEFS: ‘WHY DEMAND A LAW THAT DOESN’T WORK?’

While several big city police chiefs are reportedly lobbying the White House to press for an extension of the so-called “assault weapon” ban scheduled to sunset at midnight, Sept. 13, the Citizens Committee for ! the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) today wants the chiefs to explain why they would continue a law that significant studies have shown doesn’t work.

In the past year, a report from the Centers for Disease and Control and, more recently, a report done for the National Institute of Justice, have cast doubt on the effectiveness of such laws. The CDC report, issued last October, looked at 51 previous gun control studies and concluded that there is no evidence any gun control law has reduced crime. The NIJ-funded report, released in June, says there is no evidence the semi-auto ban has accomplished anything significant.

“Why are these police chiefs clinging to a law they know doesn’t work,” wondered CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “It would seem more productive for these top cops and their colleagues around the country to push programs that do work.”

The International Association of Police Chiefs and other groups asserted in an emotional letter to the White House ! that, “If the law is not renewed, the firearms of choice for terrorists, drug dealers and gang members will be back on our streets. … With homeland security becoming an increasingly vital part of the daily law enforcement mission, we need to know that these assault weapons?will not be back in circulation.”

CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron noted, “The doomsday scenario portrayed in this letter is a myth. These firearms were never actually banned, and more than a million are legally owned right now by law-abiding citizens. They are used for competition, recreational shooting, predator hunting and varmint control, and even home defense. It is wrong to push legislation by promoting hysteria and worse when federally-funded research clearly shows the legislation to have been essentially worthless. This ban hasn’t simply outlived its usefulness. It was never useful to begin with.”

“These guns,” Gottlieb added, “were never involved in more than two percent of violent crim! es before the ban was enacted. They have not been a major crime problem. Suggesting otherwise should be beneath the dignity of anyone who considers himself a leader in the law enforcement community. The time has come to be rid of this legislation, which demonized an object because of cosmetic characteristics, and diverted too much attention from the real solution to crime and terrorism: Find the perpetrators and lock them up.”

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is one of the nation’s premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.

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