CCRKBA Blasts Emanuel's Proposed Illinois Gun Registration Scheme

BELLEVUE, Wash., Feb. 17, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's proposal to slap law-abiding Illinois gun owners with a handgun registration mandate that includes a $65 per-gun fee is "nothing more than a maneuver to discourage gun ownership in the face of court rulings that have gone against Chicago's stubborn gun ban mentality," the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

Under Emanuel's proposal, any Illinois resident purchasing a handgun would be hit with the $65 registration requirement, which is over and above current statutory requirements that include possession of a Firearm Owner's Identification (FOID) card.

"This is Rahm Emanuel's childish strategy of striking back at the Second Amendment," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan M. Gottlieb. "Chicago lost before the Supreme Court in the landmark McDonald case, and its horribly written handgun ordinance has also been rejected by a federal appeals court.

"Because he is on the losing end of the gun rights battle," Gottlieb continued, "Mayor Emanuel now wants to take out his frustration on every law-abiding gun owner in Illinois. This is the kind of reaction one expects from a five-year-old throwing a temper tantrum, but it should be beneath the dignity of an adult who is supposed to be the leader of one of the nation's largest cities."

Emanuel claims that his measure is aimed at helping police, parents and community groups. But State Rep. Brandon Phelps, a Harrisburg Democrat, called the proposal a "slap in the face of every law-abiding gun owner." Gottlieb concurs with that assessment.

"Rahm Emanuel is a both a product, and a philosophical poster child, of two anti-gun administrations," he said. "He served in both the Clinton and Obama administrations, always as point man on gun control initiatives. He does not seem to grasp the reality that American citizens, including those living in Illinois, have a constitutionally-protected civil right to keep and bear arms for their personal protection.

"Mayor Emanuel's crass effort to infringe on that right through legislative demagoguery is insulting and immature," Gottlieb said. "This is the kind of behavior that continues to land Chicago in court, and pretty soon, taxpayers will grow tired of entertaining his anti-gun agenda with their dollars."

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