http://www.usnewswire.com/topnews/Current_Releases/0405-139.html
Gun Rights Group Calls on AGs to Investigate Conspiracy
U.S. Newswire
5 Apr 15:20
Gun Rights Group Calls on Attorneys General to Investigate
Conspiracy by Mayors Against Firearms Industry
To: National Desk
Contact: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation,
425-454-7012; Web site: http://www.saf.org
BELLEVUE, Wash., April 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- One of the nation's
leading firearms civil rights advocates today called upon the U.S.
Justice Department and attorneys general in Connecticut, New York and
Maryland, to investigate an "obvious conspiracy" involving mayors in
28 major U.S. cities and an attorney with the Center to Prevent
Handgun Violence to bankrupt the firearms industry.
Responding to announcements last week that Connecticut Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal and his colleagues in Maryland and New
York would open antitrust investigations after the gun industry
refused to follow Smith & Wesson in caving in to the Clinton
Administration, Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment
Foundation, said, "If they want to investigate a conspiracy, they
really ought to look into the relationship between HCI's Dennis
Henigan and the mayors involved in municipal lawsuits against the gun
industry."
Gottlieb, and the Second Amendment Foundation, last November filed
a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That suit
contends the mayors have conspired to undermine the civil rights of
gun owners by making it increasingly difficult and costly to legally
obtain firearms through interstate commerce.
Henigan was not named in the lawsuit, but he is serving as a
consultant in almost two dozen legal actions against the gun
industry. Henigan is director of the Legal Action project for the
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, which is associated with Handgun
Control Inc.
Gottlieb's group is represented by attorney Richard Gardiner of
Washington, D.C. Gardiner is a leading expert on constitutional
firearms law, and previously worked for the National Rifle
Association.
"If there's a conspiracy to be found anywhere in this scenario,"
Gottlieb said, "it will be found between those mayors who have led
their cities into the ill-advised lawsuits against the firearms
industry. It has never been a secret that these lawsuits were filed
not in the interest of solving gun violence, but to financially break
the gun industry.
"While our lawsuit was not filed on behalf of the industry,"
Gottlieb continued, "we are seeking to protect the firearms civil
rights of the American public, which overwhelmingly supports the
Second Amendment's protection of our individual right to keep and
bear arms. By attempting to bury the gun industry in legal red tape,
this conspiracy of municipal lawsuits has made it harder for private
citizens to exercise their civil right of gun ownership."
The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest tax-exempt
education, legal defense and publishing organization founded in 1974
and has more than 600,000 individual citizen supporters nationwide.
It previously has funded successful firearms-related suits against
the cities of Los Angeles, New Haven, Conn., and San Francisco on
behalf of American gun owners.
Gun Rights Group Calls on AGs to Investigate Conspiracy
U.S. Newswire
5 Apr 15:20
Gun Rights Group Calls on Attorneys General to Investigate
Conspiracy by Mayors Against Firearms Industry
To: National Desk
Contact: Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation,
425-454-7012; Web site: http://www.saf.org
BELLEVUE, Wash., April 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- One of the nation's
leading firearms civil rights advocates today called upon the U.S.
Justice Department and attorneys general in Connecticut, New York and
Maryland, to investigate an "obvious conspiracy" involving mayors in
28 major U.S. cities and an attorney with the Center to Prevent
Handgun Violence to bankrupt the firearms industry.
Responding to announcements last week that Connecticut Attorney
General Richard Blumenthal and his colleagues in Maryland and New
York would open antitrust investigations after the gun industry
refused to follow Smith & Wesson in caving in to the Clinton
Administration, Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment
Foundation, said, "If they want to investigate a conspiracy, they
really ought to look into the relationship between HCI's Dennis
Henigan and the mayors involved in municipal lawsuits against the gun
industry."
Gottlieb, and the Second Amendment Foundation, last November filed
a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Conference of Mayors. That suit
contends the mayors have conspired to undermine the civil rights of
gun owners by making it increasingly difficult and costly to legally
obtain firearms through interstate commerce.
Henigan was not named in the lawsuit, but he is serving as a
consultant in almost two dozen legal actions against the gun
industry. Henigan is director of the Legal Action project for the
Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, which is associated with Handgun
Control Inc.
Gottlieb's group is represented by attorney Richard Gardiner of
Washington, D.C. Gardiner is a leading expert on constitutional
firearms law, and previously worked for the National Rifle
Association.
"If there's a conspiracy to be found anywhere in this scenario,"
Gottlieb said, "it will be found between those mayors who have led
their cities into the ill-advised lawsuits against the firearms
industry. It has never been a secret that these lawsuits were filed
not in the interest of solving gun violence, but to financially break
the gun industry.
"While our lawsuit was not filed on behalf of the industry,"
Gottlieb continued, "we are seeking to protect the firearms civil
rights of the American public, which overwhelmingly supports the
Second Amendment's protection of our individual right to keep and
bear arms. By attempting to bury the gun industry in legal red tape,
this conspiracy of municipal lawsuits has made it harder for private
citizens to exercise their civil right of gun ownership."
The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest tax-exempt
education, legal defense and publishing organization founded in 1974
and has more than 600,000 individual citizen supporters nationwide.
It previously has funded successful firearms-related suits against
the cities of Los Angeles, New Haven, Conn., and San Francisco on
behalf of American gun owners.