Obama Would Have Prosecuted Chicago Man For Defending Himself With Handgun

BELLEVUE, Wash., May 28 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An 80-year-old Chicago man who defended himself and his family from a neighborhood thug this week could be criminally prosecuted, if Barack Obama had prevailed in a 2004 Illinois State Legislature vote on a measure to protect citizens who use handguns in self-defense even when their communities ban handguns.

"As an Illinois State Senator, Barack Obama voted not once, but twice in opposition to Senate Bill 2165," recalled Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.

The so-called "Hale DeMar Act" – named for a Wilmette, IL resident who shot a burglar with a handgun, a violation of Wilmette's handgun ban – was passed in March 2004 on a 38-20 vote. Obama was one of the senators voting against the measure. After disgraced former Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed the bill, the Senate voted to override the veto on Nov. 9 by a vote of 40-18. Again, Obama was one of the opponents.

"That measure is now law," Gottlieb noted, "and it should protect a courageous Chicago resident from being victimized twice, once by the man who tried to kill him and then by the Daley administration, that wants to keep him and other law-abiding citizens disarmed. If Obama had had his way in 2004, Wednesday morning's hero would be today's criminal.

"The elderly gentleman used his handgun only after Anthony 'Big Ant' Nelson fired at him and his wife through their bedroom window," he continued. "Being a convicted felon, Mr. Nelson had no business carrying a handgun, especially in the commission of an attempted home invasion. But of course, the Chicago handgun ban didn't stop him. An armed citizen did that.

"President Obama may claim to support the Second Amendment, but his actions tell a different tale," Gottlieb stated. "In March 2008, he told a Pittsburgh newspaper that he opposes concealed carry. In addition to his anti-gun-rights voting record, as a state senate candidate, he supported banning handguns. These are not the actions of someone who believes in the right to keep and bear arms.

"A Chicago resident is alive today," he concluded, "not because of Obama's 2004 vote, but in spite of it. His story is a text book example for striking down Chicago's ban and restoring to its residents the ability to fight back."

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.

SOURCE Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms

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