BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today responded to a biased story about firearms theft that appears in The Trace, an on-line anti-gun-rights publication.
The story concerns gun thefts from vehicles. SAF noted that those guns would not be left in cars were it not for the ridiculous gun control laws supported by wealthy anti-gun elitists who also support the publication.
“Michael Bloomberg and other gun prohibition elitists who bankroll The Trace should be demanding tougher sentences for people who break into cars just to steal guns, rather than whining about law-abiding citizens who are forced to leave guns locked in vehicles because of gun-free zones and other restrictions,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb.
The article contends that gun owners “make it easy for thieves.” In reality, Gottlieb countered, it is laws that prevent legally-armed citizens from carrying their firearms into so-called ‘gun-free zones’ that include restaurants, shopping malls, theaters and other public places. And, he added, the blame also lies with lax enforcement of existing laws that are supposed to punish car prowlers.
“Gun prohibitionists encourage businesses to post their property off limits to legally-carried firearms,” Gottlieb noted. “The best way to keep firearms out of the wrong hands is to make it easier, not harder, for those guns to remain in the right hands. No honest citizen should be forced to leave a legal firearm locked in a vehicle while dining out with friends, or taking their families to a movie, or to a shopping mall, where they might be attacked and seriously injured, without the means to fight back, as last weekend’s incident in Minnesota demonstrated.
“This makes it easier for thieves to steal guns,” he added. “It’s almost as though anti-gunners want car prowlers to take those firearms, and for legal gun owners to be sitting ducks for the next madman with a knife.
“Bloomberg and The Trace don’t seem to understand who the good guys and bad guys are,” Gottlieb concluded. “Their real intent is to discourage gun ownership and lawful carry, by leaving honest people increasingly vulnerable to theft and physical assault, and that’s disgraceful.”