Federal Jury Does Right What Anti-Gunners Do Wrong

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today said a federal jury in South Carolina did right what anti-gunners have been doing wrong for decades, by convicting a killer who misused a firearm, rather than holding every gun owner in America responsible for the crime.

“By convicting Dylan Roof for the slayings of nine church members at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston last year, the jury properly placed responsibility for that terrible crime squarely on the shoulders of the man who did it,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “The system worked, the law worked, and this verdict affirms that individuals are accountable for their crimes, while penalizing all American firearms owners is nonsense.” Gottlieb recalled that gun prohibition lobbying groups exploited the tragedy to push their political agenda against gun owners. He is co-author of “Dancing in Blood: Exposing the Gun Ban Lobby’s Playbook to Destroy Your Rights” and the more recent “Right to Carry.” “For a while,” he said, “it seemed like every gun owner in America, along with their right to keep and bear arms, was on trial. Instead of focusing on bringing a murderer to justice, the anti-rights lobby literally capitalized on the crime in an effort to erode the rights of millions of American citizens who have harmed nobody. “What Roof did was unconscionable and reprehensible,” Gottlieb observed. “But he did it all by himself. Tens of millions of honest firearms owners, including some 15 million who are licensed to carry for personal protection, were just as horrified by his attack as everyone else. We all shared the grief, but we do not share the responsibility. That is a burden Dylan Roof will have to bear on his own.”