Group to Push For National Concealed Carry, More

November 04, 2004
CNSNews.com

A Second Amendment group, relieved to have a stronger pro-gun majority on Capitol Hill and a gun-friendly president in the White House, says it will now press for an expansion of the nation's armed pilots program.

The real work begins now," the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) said in a press release congratulating gun owners who turned out in record numbers on Tuesday to protect their interests.

"This is the first real opportunity that gun owners have had in recent memory to go on the offensive," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb.

In addition to improvements in the armed pilots program, CCRKBA is calling for national concealed carry legislation for private citizens, which it sees as vital for homeland security.

CCRKBA says it was the first group to call for the arming of commercial airline pilots -- doing so on Sept. 11, 2001 - "while smoke was still rising from the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Virginia."

Although Congress passed legislation creating the armed pilots program, CCRKBA has been very critical of federal bureaucrats who are "deliberately road-blocking that important program."

According to Gottlieb, "It is time for Congress and the White House to fix the armed pilots program, and to provide the same right of national concealed carry to law-abiding American citizens that they provided this year to off-duty and retired police officers.

"No matter what an American citizen does for a living, they do not leave their right of self-defense at the border of their home state."

Gottlieb said this is a good time for gun owners to begin fighting to regain their "lost firearms freedoms." The goal, he said, is "expanding the ability of all Americans to be safe, in the air, on our streets and in our homes."

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms describes itself as one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations.