SAF: Prohibitionists Re-Packaging Gun Control as Public Health Crisis

BELLEVUE, WA – The billionaire-supported gun prohibition movement has re-packaged its gun control agenda as a public health crisis, trying to convince the public that the cure to violent crime is to amputate the Second Amendment from the Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

“They couldn’t sell gun control as crime control,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Then they couldn’t sell gun control as gun safety. Now they’re trying to convince the public that gun ownership is a public health issue.

“But this isn’t about public health,” he added. “This is all about politics. They’ve repackaged their agenda, but it’s the same old snake oil in a different bottle, and their strategy is right out of the gun control playbook.”

SAF, which hosts Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership as one of its priority projects, said the public should be alarmed at this campaign to equate gun ownership to a communicable disease. The SAF/DRGO project is a counter to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and its Center for Gun Policy and Research. Billionaire anti-gun-rights former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has reportedly donated $2.9 billion to the university over the years.

“What will they do next,” Gottlieb wondered, “attack freedom of speech as a mental health problem if someone openly disagrees with their crusade for public disarmament?

“For the health community to suggest that gun ownership is a public health problem amounts to medical malpractice,” he observed. “And by the way, medical malpractice kills a lot more people than firearms.”

Gottlieb’s warning comes as the Board of Health in King County, Washington is conducting a so-called “gun violence prevention summit” that doesn’t include a single representative from the firearms community. There is no input from firearms retailers, gun range operators or firearms instructors; not a single genuine gun safety expert.

“If there is a national crisis,” Gottlieb said, “trampling the rights of millions of healthy gun owners is not the cure. Demonizing guns and gun owners amounts to practicing voodoo during brain surgery. You’ll make a lot of noise and get plenty of attention, but the patient dies.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.