Don't let gun-control extremists exploit Capitol Hill tragedy

The recent tragedy on Seattle's Capitol Hill may never be adequately explained, but it has not taken long for proponents of increasingly erosive gun-control schemes to exploit the crime.

Even before the bodies had been removed from the crime scene, Washington CeaseFire — an extremist group in our view, whose ghoulishly quick reaction was tantamount to dancing in the blood of Kyle Huff's victims — issued a press release calling for tougher gun laws.

And now three former Washington governors, following CeaseFire's script, are complaining that our gun laws are full of alleged "loopholes" that allowed this crime to happen ["Former governors call for tougher gun-safety laws," Times op-ed, April 5]. But consider some facts.

None of Huff's firearms was purchased in Washington state. Huff brought his firearms from Montana, where they were legally purchased under that state's laws. No Washington state law would have made any difference.

While the three ex-governors and CeaseFire have used this tragedy to rail against a mythical "gun show loophole," none of Huff's firearms was purchased at a gun show. A Justice Department survey of convicted felons has shown that fewer than 1 percent of them obtained their guns at gun shows. The overwhelming majority of criminals get their firearms from other sources.

A semi-automatic Bushmaster sport-utility rifle found in Huff's pickup with several loaded magazines was not used in the crime. The presence of that firearm in the truck is irrelevant, as were the guns confiscated from his apartment.

Nothing in Huff's background when he purchased his guns remotely suggests he was capable of this carnage. Would former Govs. Al Rosellini, Mike Lowry and Gary Locke — and CeaseFire Executive Director Natalie Reber — expect the public to believe that we can legislate mind reading so that firearms retailers would look into someone's eyes and determine whether, four or five years in the future, that person might commit a crime with the gun he is buying?

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske quickly demonized Huff's "pistol grip" shotgun, falsely claiming that it was only for "hunting people." Kerlikowske's expertise about guns appears limited to leaving his loaded pistol in a car where it was stolen, else he would know that pistol-grip shotguns are pretty common in bear country, and that they are utility tools for fish and game biologists, fishing and hunting guides, bush pilots and others who have harmed nobody.

The amount of ammunition Huff had is probably irrelevant. The Seattle Times reported that Huff came from a region where "it's routine to carry a gun or guns in a pickup, and some may carry hundreds of rounds of ammunition for target practice."

A Montana detective, Lt. Roger Bergstrom, dismissed the suggestion by Seattle cops that Huff's intentions were clear, due to the rifle and ammunition found in his vehicle. Bergstrom noted, "The fact that [Huff] had all those weapons in the truck does not necessarily lead me to believe it was premeditated."

Yet, CeaseFire's Reber has intimated that the Capitol Hill slayings could have been prevented by limiting the number of firearms or the amount of ammunition someone can have, and that is preposterous.

Even Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, admitted to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer that it might be difficult to find "a systematic fix" that would prevent such crimes.

Laws against guns on school campuses have not prevented a single school shooting. Laws against murder have not stopped murders. Laws restricting the firearm rights of law-abiding citizens have penalized the wrong people, while criminals intent on breaking the law and harming others keep doing it.

Stop trying to hoodwink the public into believing that one more restriction on law-abiding gun owners is going to stop the Kyle Huffs of the world, because it isn't, and the gun-control extremists know it.

Alan Gottlieb is the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org); Joe Waldron is executive director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) in Bellevue.