Rep. Dingell: Drop Your Support For Gun Control Measure

On Monday, the Gun Owners of America sent grassroots alerts into the state of Michigan, asking its members and activists to contact Representative John Dingell and urge him not to support gun control legislation that will be debated in Congress soon.

GOA’s Director of Communications Erich Pratt expressed concern that gun owners could lose more of their rights, as Congress will soon be debating gun control legislation (HR 297) in the wake of the Virginia Tech shootings.

“Rep. Dingell is a cosponsor of legislation to expand upon the Brady Law,” Pratt said. “What’s ironic is that Dingell is doing this, even though he voted against Brady more than 10 years ago.”

HR 297 has only been introduced in one chamber, but it already contains a listing of the Who’s Who in the gun control movement. Current and past sponsors include the notorious Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) and John Conyers (D-MI). And on the other side of Capitol Hill, anti-gun Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Ted Kennedy (D-MA), and Dick Durbin (D-IL) have cosponsored this gun control measure in the past.

Pratt urged Rep. Dingell to consider whether expanded background checks will ultimately stop evil-minded people from getting a gun and prevent school shootings. “Don’t forget Canada, Germany and Scotland,” Pratt said. “Even though these countries have imposed massive amounts of gun control, they have all been afflicted with school shootings in the past ten years.

“Gun control only affects the law-abiding,” Pratt continued. “There were adults at Virginia Tech who wanted to carry guns on campus for self-defense. Public press reports have revealed this is the case. But gun control left them disarmed and defenseless.

“Now, rather than repealing existing gun control, the Congress is looking to expand the Brady law, even though it has already kept countless, law-abiding citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights. Americans have been prevented from buying guns because of outstanding traffic tickets, because of errors, because the NICS computer system has crashed, because combat veterans sought treatment to deal with the shakes after returning home and because married couples got into screaming matches with one another — and are now disarmed for life as a result of the Lautenberg gun ban of 1996.

“This should teach us that if you give an anti-gun bureaucrat an inch, he’ll take a mile,” Pratt concluded. “That’s why GOA urges Rep. Dingell to reconsider his support for HR 297 and to instead repeal the gun control laws that create criminal safe zones, such as the one that exists on the Virginia Tech campus where no one is allowed to carry a gun for self-defense.”