'Before Banning Our Guns, Recover The Ones Your BATF Sent To Mexico,' Says CCRKBA

BELLEVUE, Wash., Dec. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "Before asking Congress to ban our firearms, President Obama should order his Justice Department to get back all the guns his administration allowed to be walked into Mexico under Operation Fast and Furious," the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb noted that some 2,000 guns were allowed to fall into criminal hands by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Those guns are still showing up at crime scenes including, as CBS News reported, the attack that killed Mexican beauty queen Maria Susana Flores Gamez.

"The Citizens Committee has just learned that Senator Charles Grassley is asking Inspector General Michael Horwitz to investigate how a firearm apparently purchased by a BATF special agent in Phoenix more than two years ago was recently recovered at a Mexican crime scene," Gottlieb said. "It is bad enough that the agency let criminal suspects literally walk guns into Mexico, but to find a gun apparently linked directly to a BATF official at a Mexican crime scene is an outrage.

"Guns linked to Fast and Furious have accounted for more than 200 deaths in Mexico and the United States, including Border Patrol agent Brian Terry," he added. "While the nation mourns for the innocent children and heroic teachers and administrators at Sandy Hook Elementary, the Obama administration should not be penalizing America's law-abiding gun owners when it has yet to answer for the incredible irresponsibility of its own agency.

"This morning," Gottlieb stated, "President Obama announced that Vice President Joe Biden, a perennial anti-gunner during his years on Capitol Hill, will lead the administration's effort to 'curb violence.' This effort is supposed to include members of the cabinet and certain unidentified outside organizations.

"We will wait patiently for our telephone to ring with a White House invitation to participate," Gottlieb concluded. "We won't hold our breath, and we will not be rushing to quick agreement on any proposal while Fast and Furious guns are still being used to kill innocent people.

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