‘ANTI-GUNNERS GET DESPERATION DOLLARS TO PUSH I-1639'

BELLEVUE, WA – While their extremist gun control campaign is being largely funded by less than a dozen wealthy elitists, proponents of Initiative 1639 are feigning desperation in an effort to raise small donations to create the appearance of a populist movement, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today. “This week,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “backers of the gun control initiative just got a $600,000 windfall from two billionaire couples and New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s gun control lobbying group to pass I-1639. Yet, they sent a mass email begging for donations while complaining that the real grassroots opposition to I-1639 is spending ‘big’ money to fight the measure. What they’re not saying is that they have raised and spent ten times as much money to push their draconian scheme.

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“It’s disingenuous,” Gottlieb observed, “deceptive and dishonest. But, what else is new about anti-gunners?” According to the state Public Disclosure Commission, the cash came from billionaires Steve and Connie Ballmer, and Nick and Leslie Hanauer, each donating $100,000 apiece. Another $200,000 came from Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety. In total, the Ballmers have donated $1.2 million, the Hanauers another $1,426,036, and Everytown has contributed $509,500. Add the $1,226,036 contributed by the late Paul Allen and the $100,000 each from Lenore Hanauer, Sibyl Frankenburg and Steven Kessel and it comes to a grand total of $4,661,572 of the $5,139,797.43 that the Safe Schools Safe Communities group sponsoring I-1639 has raised. “Roughly 85 to 90 percent of the I-1639 funding has come from a handful of elitists who are determined to dictate how others live,” Gottlieb said, “and it bares the hypocrisy of I-1639 sponsors who complain about ‘out-of-state’ money influencing local gun policy. It’s time to stop this demagoguery and tell these billionaires that our self-defense rights, our medical privacy and the Second Amendment are not for sale.” “Their fund raising appeal conveniently ignored the fact that Washington state’s rank-and-file law enforcement organizations are uniformly opposed to I-1639,” he continued. “That includes members of the Washington State Patrol Troopers Association, Washington State Sheriffs Association, Washington Council of Police & Sheriffs, Washington State Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors Association and Washington Fraternal Order of Police. “You can support the effort to beat this initiative by visiting the ‘Vote No’ website,” Gottlieb added.

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