BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A proposal to ban so-called "assault weapons" in Washington State shifts the blame for recent violent crimes from the perpetrators to every law-abiding gun owner in the state, holding them and their firearms responsible for crimes they did not commit, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

"This is a proposal by three vehemently anti-gun rights state lawmakers who are exploiting two recent murders in an effort to push a political agenda they have had for several years,' said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "One of those slayings, the murder of Seattle Police Officer Timothy Brenton, didn't even involve the specific kind of firearm they want banned."

State Senators Adam Kline (D-37th District) and Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-36th District), and State Rep. Ross Hunter (D-48th District) will sponsor the legislation. They held a press conference this morning to announce their plans. The plan is supported by Washington CeaseFire, a small but radical gun prohibitionist group.

"Tens of thousands of Evergreen State citizens own the kind of semiautomatic sport-utility rifles and shotguns that these Democrat lawmakers want banned," Gottlieb observed. "Those citizens have committed no crimes. They utilize their rifles for hunting, target shooting and competition, recreational shooting, predator control and even home defense. For Kline, Kohl-Welles and Hunter to demonize them and their firearms smacks of hysteria and social bigotry.

"These are not military firearms," he continued. "Just because they are deceptively similar in appearance to military firearms is no reason to ban them. That's like putting someone in prison just because he looks like a criminal.

"Such a ban violates Washington State's constitutional right to bear arms provision," Gottlieb noted. "We expect gun owners to express their outrage, not only during the upcoming legislative session, but also at the polls next November."

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) 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.

SOURCE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

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