Illinois Anti-Gun Activist Arrested; Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Says 'Welcome to the Party'
To: National Desk
Contact: Alan Gottlieb of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, 425-454-4911; Web: http://www.ccrkba.org
BELLEVUE, Wash., March 1 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The arrest of a Springfield, Ill. anti-gun activist by police who allegedly found an illegal handgun and drugs in her home during a contested search prompted the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms to bid Annette "Flirty" Stevens a "welcome to the party."
Stevens became an activist with the Million Mom March after her son was gunned down in 2002. She has acknowledged having the gun -- from which the serial number had been removed -- in her home. The handgun belonged to her late son, Jericko Clark, she insisted, and she had simply wrapped it up and forgotten about it after finding it several months after his slaying. She claims the search was illegal.
"Annette Stevens may now understand why so many law-abiding people are fed up with the kind of gun laws that are promoted by the Million Mom March and other extremist gun control organizations," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "Ironically, the law against filing serial numbers off firearms is one that gun rights activists and organizations have long supported. Yet here she is, this 'poster mom' for gun control, acknowledging that she has kept an illegally-altered handgun in her home while she's been campaigning to deprive other citizens of their firearms.
"In the kind of Draconian anti-gun society Stevens and her cohorts are trying to create," Gottlieb continued, "it wouldn't matter if she were innocent as she claims. Under the laws her group supports, gun owners are essentially considered guilty until they prove themselves otherwise. That's everything from background checks to waiting periods, and certainly the Illinois requirement that gun owners have a Firearms Owners Identification Card. Stevens has no FOID card, so there's another gun law violation. There are thousands of local and state laws across the country that the Million Moms support, none of which have done anything to prevent a single crime. All they do is chip away at the gun rights of law-abiding citizens.
"If Stevens is so convinced guns don't belong in society," Gottlieb observed, "then why didn't she immediately turn that gun over to the police when she found it more than two years ago? Why did she keep it? What's wrong with this picture? Ms. Stevens is about to learn that supporting gun control is like keeping a vicious dog. They sometimes bite the hands that feed them."
With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms ( http://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.
-0-
/© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
