BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says the gun prohibition lobby has once again lost all credibility for not recognizing the importance of armed self-defense by private citizens, because such cases do not support their anti-gun narrative.

“A perfect illustration happened a few days ago when a Georgia man shot an Ohio murder suspect during a home invasion in Fayette County,” noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Such incidents provide proof that guns are used effectively by private citizens in self-defense situations, which the gun prohibition lobby repeatedly argues is a rarity. Research suggests that armed citizens use firearms in self-defense up to 1.7 million times a year.

“The gun ban lobby doesn’t want the public to know this,” he mused, “which should raise questions about what else they are hiding.”

The Georgia incident underscores the importance of an armed public, and the right of self-defense, which the gun prohibition lobby steadfastly ignores, or tries to downplay, said Gottlieb, co-author of “Good Guys with Guns.” The suspect, identified as Michael James Brooks II, was wanted in connection with the stabbing death of 77-year-old Emily Foster in Columbus, Ohio. He was also wanted for a carjacking in Ohio. The stolen vehicle was found outside the Georgia home where he was shot.

“Gun prohibitionists tend to favor leniency toward criminal suspects,” Gottlieb observed, “which only encourages more violent behavior when criminals figure out the legal system isn’t going to hold them accountable. Anti-gunners are quick to demand more gun controls to penalize law-abiding citizens every time some criminal misuses a firearm, rather than placing the blame solely on the perpetrator.

“When Elisjsha Dicken heroically killed a would-be mass shooter at a shopping mall in Indiana last year,” Gottlieb recalled, “the gun ban crowd was totally silent. Likewise, when armed citizens stopped a Texas church shooting in 2019, we heard nothing from anti-gunners. This scenario is repeated every time a private citizen acts legally and decisively in a life-threatening situation. After all, the gun prohibition lobby likes to justify every one of their extremist schemes by saying ‘if it saves just one life, it’s worth it.’ That logic runs both ways. If armed self-defense or intervention saves just one life, isn’t that also worthwhile? We’ll wait for an answer.”

Contact: Alan Gottlieb (425) 454-4911

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.