Obama`s Court Nomination Validates America`s Rush to Buy Firearms, Says CCRKBA

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(Business Wire)--
President Barack Obama`s nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to replace retiring
Justice David Souter on the U.S. Supreme Court validates the concerns of
millions of American citizens who have been rushing to gun shops for the past
seven months, fearing their Second Amendment rights are in jeopardy, the
Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

Judge Sotomayor was part of a Second Circuit Court panel that ruled in January
that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states, in Maloney v. Cuomo.
That is in direct conflict with a Ninth Circuit opinion earlier this spring in
Nordyke v. King that the Second Amendment is incorporated to the states, and
therefore does place limits on states` ability to regulate the individual right
to keep and bear arms.

"Starting literally last Nov. 4 and every day since," noted CCRKBA Chairman Alan
Gottlieb, "concerned Americans, many who had never before owned a firearm, have
been crowding into gun shops. Their concerns that the Obama administration may
somehow try to destroy Second Amendment rights have certainly been affirmed with
the nomination of Judge Sotomayor to the Supreme Court.

"Sure, Congress has turned a cold shoulder to renewal of the ban on
semiautomatic sporting rifles," he continued, "and the president did sign the
guns-in-parks bill, but only because he had to in order to save his credit card
legislation.

"But a Supreme Court justice is a president`s legacy," Gottlieb observed. "Judge
Sotomayor would become a justice for life, and her anti-Second Amendment
position would continue affecting her decisions long after Obama is gone from
the White House.

"A Supreme Court nominee`s philosophy generally reflects the philosophy of the
president that nominates them," Gottlieb concluded. "Judge Sotomayor`s position
on the Second Amendment is a clear signal that Mr. Obama`s claim that he
supports gun rights is nothing but lip service from a man who consistently
argued and voted against those rights in the Illinois Senate and the U.S.
Senate. American gun owners have every reason to oppose this nomination, and let
their senators know why."

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.

CCRKBA
Alan Gottlieb, 425-454-4911

Copyright Business Wire 2009