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Gun Rights Group Blasts Chicago Police Superintend
Josey1
Member Posts: 9,598 ✭✭
Gun Rights Group Blasts Chicago Police Superintendent's Lame Blame Game
8/28/03 6:11:00 PM
To: State Desk
Contact: Joe Waldron of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 425-454-4911; Web site: http://www.ccrkba.org
BELLEVUE, Wash., Aug. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Blaming "access to a firearm" for the Wednesday shooting rampage in Chicago by Salvador Tapia was a lame attempt by Acting Police Supt. Phil Cline to exploit a crime for political purposes, said Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Speaking to reporters after Tapia shot and killed six employees at Windy City Core Supply, Inc., Cline stated, "The problem here is access to a firearm. Here's someone who never should have had a gun, who had a gun, and tragic results occurred."
"Like many others who advocate prohibitive gun laws, Phil Cline is dancing in the blood of crime victims to push an extremist agenda," Waldron stated. "Salvador Tapia had a criminal record dating back to 1989. He was convicted for unlawful use of a weapon, and arrested for multiple gun violations, domestic battery and aggravated assault. Yet he never served time in jail.
"The problem here isn't access to a firearm," Waldron said. "The problem here is a failed justice system that allowed Salvador Tapia to repeatedly break the law and go unpunished. He shouldn't have been on the street in the first place with a criminal record like his, much less having had a gun.
"There is already talk about tightening Chicago's gun laws," he noted. "The city already has among the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, and Superintendent Cline knows it. This law bans handgun possession for the average citizens who became Tapia's victims Wednesday because they could not defend themselves. The real tragedy here is that Cline has tried to exploit this horrible crime to hint at even more restrictions on gun owners.
"Restrictive gun laws didn't stop Salvador Tapia," Waldron continued, "they just left his victims defenseless. That is an outrage, and law-abiding Chicago residents would be justified to demand a change. If the courts had done their job, Tapia might not have been free to commit his rampage, and it would not have been up to a squad of courageous Chicago police officers to bring his life of violence and lawbreaking to an end."
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.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
-0-
/c 2003 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>
8/28/03 6:11:00 PM
To: State Desk
Contact: Joe Waldron of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 425-454-4911; Web site: http://www.ccrkba.org
BELLEVUE, Wash., Aug. 28 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Blaming "access to a firearm" for the Wednesday shooting rampage in Chicago by Salvador Tapia was a lame attempt by Acting Police Supt. Phil Cline to exploit a crime for political purposes, said Joe Waldron, executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Speaking to reporters after Tapia shot and killed six employees at Windy City Core Supply, Inc., Cline stated, "The problem here is access to a firearm. Here's someone who never should have had a gun, who had a gun, and tragic results occurred."
"Like many others who advocate prohibitive gun laws, Phil Cline is dancing in the blood of crime victims to push an extremist agenda," Waldron stated. "Salvador Tapia had a criminal record dating back to 1989. He was convicted for unlawful use of a weapon, and arrested for multiple gun violations, domestic battery and aggravated assault. Yet he never served time in jail.
"The problem here isn't access to a firearm," Waldron said. "The problem here is a failed justice system that allowed Salvador Tapia to repeatedly break the law and go unpunished. He shouldn't have been on the street in the first place with a criminal record like his, much less having had a gun.
"There is already talk about tightening Chicago's gun laws," he noted. "The city already has among the most restrictive gun laws in the nation, and Superintendent Cline knows it. This law bans handgun possession for the average citizens who became Tapia's victims Wednesday because they could not defend themselves. The real tragedy here is that Cline has tried to exploit this horrible crime to hint at even more restrictions on gun owners.
"Restrictive gun laws didn't stop Salvador Tapia," Waldron continued, "they just left his victims defenseless. That is an outrage, and law-abiding Chicago residents would be justified to demand a change. If the courts had done their job, Tapia might not have been free to commit his rampage, and it would not have been up to a squad of courageous Chicago police officers to bring his life of violence and lawbreaking to an end."
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.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
-0-
/c 2003 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770
"If cowardly and dishonorable men sometimes shoot unarmed men with army pistols or guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary and gallows, and not by a general deprivation of a constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878<P>