CCRKBA Says Chief's Missing Gun a Bigger Threat to Safety Than Most Firearms.

BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske, quoted by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer today claiming that more guns in the community does not deter crime should remember that his stolen gun is out there posing a greater threat to public safety than firearms belonging to typical law-abiding gun owners.

So said Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, a Bellevue-based grassroots civil rights organization. CCRKBA still has a reward for the recovery of Kerlikowske's stolen 9mm Glock pistol, taken from his city-owned car that was parked on a downtown street almost four years ago.

Kerlikowske, in New York preparing for a gun control debate on National Public Radio, is quoted by the newspaper arguing that research is "clear" that the more guns in the community, "the more that are in circulation for criminals to get their hands on."

"That's a subject on which Kerlikowske should be an authority," Gottlieb observed. "He carelessly left his loaded pistol where someone could steal it, and that gun has never been recovered. How dare this man start preaching about the pratfalls of gun ownership when he can't even keep track of his own handgun?

"In fact," he continued, "research by Prof. John Lott and others indicates quite the opposite, that more guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens do have a deterrent effect on violent crime.

"But fact apparently doesn't matter to the chief, who has been an ardent proponent of restrictive gun laws ever since he arrived in Washington State. Evidently to his dislike, gun ownership is constitutionally protected here," Gottlieb said. "He has continually lobbied on behalf of Washington CeaseFire, using his position of authority to attack the civil rights of law-abiding gun owners across the Evergreen State. No doubt he will be helping lead the charge to erode Washington's long-standing state preemption law in Olympia in January, so his boss, anti-gun Mayor Greg Nickels, can push to disarm law-abiding gun owners living in Seattle.

"We have a better idea," Gottlieb concluded. "Chief Kerlikowske should spend every waking hour looking for his stolen gun, instead of trying to steal the gun rights of the citizens he was hired to serve and protect. Who protects those citizens from the thief who is now armed with Kerlikowske's gun? Law-abiding armed citizens can take far better care of themselves than Chief 'Empty Holster' Kerlikowske."

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) 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.