Citizens Committee for the
Right to Keep and Bear Arms
12500 N.E. Tenth Place ” Bellevue, WA 98005 ” www.ccrkba.org

NEWS RELEASE

MARYLAND S TOWNSEND WANTS MORE GUN CONTROL WHILE VIOLATING CURRENT LAW

For Immediate Release Contact: Alan Gottlieb or Joe Waldron (425) 454-4911

BELLEVUE, WA Maryland gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend is just another disingenuous Democrat who demonizes guns and
gun owners while demanding more intrusive gun laws, yet she has failed
to enforce or support existing laws that could help catch a killer.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA)
today criticized Townsend and Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening for
advocating the expansion of so-called ballistic fingerprinting to
include hunting rifles. However, Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner,
Jr., chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, revealed yesterday that
of all the states, Maryland is the only one that has refused to provide
criminal records for the National Instant Criminal Background Check
System (NICS), which the FBI uses to prevent criminals from obtaining
firearms.

Once again, said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, a disingenuous
Democrat has been caught demanding more gun laws after failing to
enforce ones already on the books. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend is
campaigning to become Maryland s next governor by savaging the gun
rights voting record of her opponent. Yet Townsend, as lieutenant
governor under Glendening, has been part of an administration that has
refused to provide critical information to the NICS system. In light of
recent events in Maryland and neighboring Virginia, that amounts to a
gross dereliction of duty.

Maryland has received $6.7 million from the NICS History Improvement
Program since 1995 to improve its criminal records, Gottlieb continued.
Yet, the Glendening-Townsend administration told the FBI in March that
it could no longer provide the research and assistance your program
requires without reimbursement for the work . Not only are these two
extremist anti-gun Democrats refusing to follow a law that s already on
the books, their administration has refused to do work for which it has
already been paid by the federal government. I m not sure what they call
that in politics, but in the legal arena, that amounts to criminal
negligence and fraud.

Added CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron, It is appalling that
Glendening and Townsend want to impose ballistic fingerprinting, which
experts suggest is an unreliable science, against the legal firearms
owned by law-abiding citizens when they have abandoned their obligation
to provide support for a system designed to catch criminals.

Even more disturbing, he said, is that they have both opposed
legislation to reform Maryland s concealed carry statute, thus depriving
citizens of their right of self-defense. Maryland residents should
remember Townsend s insidious hypocrisy as she campaigns against gun
owners civil rights in her attempt to become Maryland s next governor.

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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