The leader of America's second largest
gun-rights group says 'gun grabbers' Senators Joe Manchin and Pat
Toomey 'have stepped into our trap,' accepting a deal on gun control
that will 'protect and expand a good number of pro-gun rights measures.'
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), told MailOnline that the Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, were 'snookered' by gun rights activists.
'It will be fun to see Obama forced to sign it!' he said in an email exchange.
Gottlieb said his organization
and its lobbyist 'had a hand in influencing and writing parts of' the
Manchin-Toomey bill, which gun-rights activists see as preferable to
what he called a 'draconian' proposal advanced by New York Democratic
Sen. Chuck Schumer.
In a speech Friday in Portland, Oregon, Gottlieb bragged to a friendly audience that the bill is 'a Christmas tree. We just hung a million ornaments on it.'
'Unfortunately some of my colleagues haven’t quite figured it out yet,' he said, likely referring to the National Rifle Association, 'because they weren't standing in the room writing it. My staff was.'
Schumer's bill would reportedly leave open the possibility for the federal government to use background-check information as the basis for a national gun registry - the biggest point of contention among gun rights groups.
'The bill bans any federal gun registry and carries a 15 year prison term for anyone who violates it.' That provision, he said, would include federal officers and politicians.
'If you read the bill you can see all the advances for our cause that it
contains,' he added, 'like interstate sales of handguns, veteran gun rights
restoration, travel with firearms protection, civil and criminal
immunity lawsuit protection if you sell a gun, plus more.'
'It also exempts the sale or transfer of firearms between family members and friends, as well as sales outside a commercial venue, from a background check. If you have any kind of current state permit to own, use or carry no check is done.'
Gun control advocates initially wanted a new federal law that would require background checks for nearly all private gun sales. Only licensed gun dealers currently are required to perform those checks. The proposal from Manchin and Toomey would require, for the first time, background checks on private sales of guns at gun shows.
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees that Americans' rights to arm themselves 'shall not be infringed.'
'We also have an agreement,' he added, 'that an additional amendment supported by Manchin and Toomey will be offered to even make it better, by making it possible to get federal firearms rights restored, negating the current Schumer legislation that blocks it.'
That's important to advocates like Gottlieb because the federal government often argues in court that gun restrictions in federal law can trump those enacted by the states. And citizens of the District of Columbia, historically one of the nation's highest-crime locations, have found it difficult to purchase and keep guns.
Despite court rulings guaranteeing DC residents the right to have guns for personal protection, the city's government has only permitted a single licensed dealer to operate. Permits can take months, and are often denied without recourse.
'I do not want to say more' about how the bill came about 'until it hopefully passes this week,' Gottlieb added.
'These advances for gun rights can not be made unless we win the Senate vote on Tuesday to substitute it for the current Schumer draconian background check that is in the bill at this time.'
'We're not talking about it for a reason,' he said during his speech Friday. 'If we talk about it too much, the other side's gonna find out about it and they’re gonna realize we're gonna win off of this.'
Representative for Manchin, Toomey and Schumer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), told MailOnline that the Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Toomey, a Pennsylvania Republican, were 'snookered' by gun rights activists.
'It will be fun to see Obama forced to sign it!' he said in an email exchange.
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Alan Gottlieb (L) said Second Amendment
advocates will win the day since his staff had a hand in writing the
Manchin-Toomey bill. His version of the legislation would the federal
government from establishing a database of gun owners through the use of
information from gun dealers' instant background checks
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (L)
and Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Patrick Toomey (R) announced on April
10 that they reached a deal on expanding background checks to more gun
buyers. Gottlieb says his group watered down their bill
In a speech Friday in Portland, Oregon, Gottlieb bragged to a friendly audience that the bill is 'a Christmas tree. We just hung a million ornaments on it.'
'Unfortunately some of my colleagues haven’t quite figured it out yet,' he said, likely referring to the National Rifle Association, 'because they weren't standing in the room writing it. My staff was.'
Schumer's bill would reportedly leave open the possibility for the federal government to use background-check information as the basis for a national gun registry - the biggest point of contention among gun rights groups.
'The bill bans any federal gun registry and carries a 15 year prison term for anyone who violates it.' That provision, he said, would include federal officers and politicians.
New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer (C) has introduced his own gun control bill which Gottlieb calls 'draconian
Erica Lafferty (L) and Jillian Soto (R), who
both lost relatives in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings,
attended an April 11 press conference calling for new gun controls, with
(rear, L-R): Democratic Sens. Christopher Murphy and Richard Blumenthal
of Connecticut, and Chuck Schumer of New York
'It also exempts the sale or transfer of firearms between family members and friends, as well as sales outside a commercial venue, from a background check. If you have any kind of current state permit to own, use or carry no check is done.'
Gun control advocates initially wanted a new federal law that would require background checks for nearly all private gun sales. Only licensed gun dealers currently are required to perform those checks. The proposal from Manchin and Toomey would require, for the first time, background checks on private sales of guns at gun shows.
The Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees that Americans' rights to arm themselves 'shall not be infringed.'
'We also have an agreement,' he added, 'that an additional amendment supported by Manchin and Toomey will be offered to even make it better, by making it possible to get federal firearms rights restored, negating the current Schumer legislation that blocks it.'
That's important to advocates like Gottlieb because the federal government often argues in court that gun restrictions in federal law can trump those enacted by the states. And citizens of the District of Columbia, historically one of the nation's highest-crime locations, have found it difficult to purchase and keep guns.
Despite court rulings guaranteeing DC residents the right to have guns for personal protection, the city's government has only permitted a single licensed dealer to operate. Permits can take months, and are often denied without recourse.
President Barack Obama has leveraged the
December Sandy Hook Elemtary School massacre into a call for more gun
control, speaking to groups of gun-violence victims' familiy members and
law enforcement
'These advances for gun rights can not be made unless we win the Senate vote on Tuesday to substitute it for the current Schumer draconian background check that is in the bill at this time.'
'We're not talking about it for a reason,' he said during his speech Friday. 'If we talk about it too much, the other side's gonna find out about it and they’re gonna realize we're gonna win off of this.'
Representative for Manchin, Toomey and Schumer did not immediately respond to requests for comment.