CCRKBA Says Chicago Alderman Should Suffer Like Other Gun Owners

BELLEVUE, Wash., May 22 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Chicago Alderman
Richard Mell ought to be prosecuted like any other negligent gun owner for
failing to re-register his firearms under an ordinance he helped pass, the
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

"I don't care if anti-gun Mayor Richard Daley supports giving Mell a
break, and it doesn't matter that Mell is the father-in-law of Gov. Rod
Blagojevich," said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. "For years, the draconian
ordinance supported by Mell and enforced by Daley has terrorized Chicago
gun owners. It's time for Mell to face his own music, and it's time for
Daley to just shut up."

Mell has proposed an amendment to the existing law that would allow gun
registration to re-open for a month, giving him amnesty. Mell and Daley are
claiming that this is for other gun owners in the city as well who may have
let their registrations lapse.

"For years, the Daley Administration has engaged in goon squad
demagoguery against gun owners," Gottlieb observed, "but now all of a
sudden, just because Alderman Mell finds himself on the wrong side of a law
he supported, he and Daley want to do Chicago gun owners a favor. This
magnanimity is a flimsy sham, and law-abiding firearm owners all over
Illinois should be outraged.

"It is equally outrageous that Mell is blaming this lapse on an aide,"
he added. "How stupid is that? Mell knows that gun owners are personally
responsible for re-registering their firearms, and over the years, the city
has shown no mercy for others who have failed to comply with the law. This
guy shouldn't be on the city council, he ought to be in an unemployment
line, and even more than that, he ought to be facing charges in court for
possession of unregistered guns inside the city.

"The sad fact is," Gottlieb concluded, "that this proposed amnesty
amendment would never be on the table if it weren't designed specifically
to help Alderman Mell. That anyone else might benefit is an accident, and
both Mell and Daley know it. Other gun owners should be allowed to
re-register, but Mell should lose on this sweetheart deal. Perhaps then he
will fully understand just how insidious Chicago's gun laws really are, and
he will lead the fight to abolish them."

With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens
Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (http://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.

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SOURCE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms