BELLEVUE, WA — The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper should apologize to the honest gun owners in Colorado Springs for suggesting that their exercise of the Second Amendment right to bear arms was even remotely connected to the tragic shooting there last Friday.
Hickenlooper is being widely quoted for statements he made on CNN’s “State of the Union” in reaction to the incident that left three people dead and others wounded.
“And, in Colorado, we passed universal background checks,” Gov. Hickenlooper stated. “But, at the same time, in Colorado Springs, it’s one of the more conservative parts of the state. We probably have more people that have licenses for concealed weapons, probably more guns around. That didn’t help.”
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb called the governor’s remarks “outrageous” and a blatantly false characterization of legally-armed private citizens who “had absolutely nothing to do with the incident.”
“This is just one more example of how an extremist anti-gunner exploits a tragedy to demonize gun owners and advance the agenda of public disarmament,” Gottlieb said. “It is beyond ridiculous for the governor to suggest that the rate of gun ownership and concealed carry by citizens in and around Colorado Springs had anything remotely to do with the attack.
“The gun control laws supported by Hickenlooper didn’t stop the attack,” he continued, “so maybe Colorado citizens should blame the governor for not preventing the mayhem. The governor and his cronies in the Legislature sold the public a bill of goods almost two years ago, and passed legislation that even county sheriffs opposed.
“For a public official to suggest that the rights of his honest constituents are somehow connected to the criminal act of a single individual is disgusting,” Gottlieb observed. “The governor’s flimsy attempt to transfer responsibility for this crime to thousands of Centennial State citizens should be condemned, and he needs to publicly apologize.”
