By Dave Workman
When CNN’s Brian Stelter did an analysis of the Saturday evening attack by a long gunman at the White House Correspondents’ Association banquet, he suggested more gun control would be an appropriate response.
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms reacted with a blistering statement to the media from Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who called the idea “nonsense.” He criticized Stelter for not doing his homework by finding out more about how the suspect got his guns.
“The suspect in this case is known to have purchased the shotgun and a handgun used in the attack from two different California gun stores,” Gottlieb said. “He had to pass two California background checks and endure two separate waiting periods. It is widely known California has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, and the suspect was able to complete his legal purchases. Just what more does Stelter think could be done?”
CNN Using Assassination Attempt to Call for More Gun Control
The suspect reportedly purchased his guns at least three years ago. He appears to have been planning this attack for some time, traveling across country from his home in California to Washington, D.C. and he apparently even was a guest in the Hilton hotel where the incident occurred.
“President Trump referred to the suspect as a ‘whack job’ and after reading his manifesto, that description seems appropriate,” he observed. “That’s not to suggest this guy should be allowed to plead insanity, because his writings show he was in complete control of his faculties. He appears to be someone consumed by the vile, hate-filled rhetoric that’s been used against Donald Trump for more than ten years. This was not some spur-of-the-moment act.”
Gottlieb’s remarks closely matched the criticism heaped on Trump critics by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who delayed her maternity leave long enough to lambaste a “left wing cult of hatred.”
“Those who constantly falsely label and slander the president as a fascist, as a threat to democracy, and compare him to Hitler to score political points, are fueling this kind of violence,” Leavitt said during an appearance with reporters at the White House. Her comments were reported by Fox News.
“The left wing cult of hatred against the president and all of those who support him and work for him has gotten multiple people hurt and killed, and it almost did so again this weekend,” she said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, alleged would-be assassin Cole Thomas Allen of Torrance, Calif., apparently traveled by train to reach the nation’s capital. He called himself a “Friendly Federal Assassin” in a manifesto he sent to his brother shortly before the attack. The brother reportedly sent the document to police in Connecticut after the attack.
“We find it disgusting and abysmally lazy for any journalist, even at CNN, to engage in gun control poppycock at this point,” Gottlieb stated. “While other news organizations were digging into the suspect’s background to learn how, and from where, he obtained the guns he was carrying—which he brought clear across country, apparently by train—Stelter went off on guns, and he clearly misfired.
“Tens of millions of gun owners—people whose rights too many in the media seem to disdain—didn’t hurt anyone Saturday night,” Gottlieb said. “We watched in shock with everyone else, as a California teacher, obviously overwhelmed by fanatical anti-Trump demagoguery, attempt to kill people. He will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law, but what about those who continue to spread their invective, hoping some harm comes to the president?
“Instead of demanding more gun control,” he suggested, “maybe it’s time for them to control their mouths.”
