WASHINGTON, D. C. � John Michael Snyder, Public Affairs Director of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, today commended recent actions of both the U.S. State and Justice Departments under the Bush Administration.

�I welcome this morning�s Wall Street Journal report that the Bush Justice Department, under Attorney General John Ashcroft, is drafting a legal finding that asserts individuals have a constitutional right to possess firearms,� stated Snyder, named Dean of gun lobbyists by national media.

�For too many years,� Snyder continued, �America�s scores of millions of law-abiding firearm owners have been subjected to the gun grabber myth that the Second Amendment recognizes only a collective right, rather than an individual right, to keep and bear arms. We applaud the Bush effort to disabuse the political universe of this inaccuracy. We support House Concurrent Resolution 119, by Rep. Philip Crane of Illinois, to put Congress on record as affirming an individual Second Amendment civil right to keep and bear arms.�
Snyder said, �we commend also John R. Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, for standing up Monday at the United Nations in defense of traditional American principles. He said the United States opposes a UN draft accord on the international sale of small arms, stating that the proposal might constrain the legitimate firearm trade and infringe the right of American citizens to keep and bear arms. Our government must maintain this forthright position. It must not compromise with the UN civilian disarmament lobby.� 

Snyder added that, �while we would word things more strongly, we do appreciate the requirements of diplomacy and realize Secretary Bolton may have been as strong as he thought he could have been under the circumstances.

�Personally, though, I believe it is an insult for the UN delegates even to be considering any action that might infringe on any traditional American civil right. These UN people are some of the same characters who recently kicked our own representatives off the so-called UN Human Rights Commission in favor of representatives of Communist China and tin-pot dictatorships in Libya and the Sudan.�

Snyder also is Vice President-Washington Liaison of the National Association of Chiefs of Police and Treasurer of the Second Amendment Foundation.