Outside Group Distorts Rigell's Record on Gun Rights

Statement

Washington, D.C.- Today Representative Scott Rigell issued the following statement:

"Today a special interest group began airing a radio spot in Hampton Roads that deliberately distorts my conservative position and voting record on the Second Amendment. The group claims, falsely, that I am among "the gun grabbers in Washington, D.C." working to "introduce a massive new gun control scheme" that would open the door for the ATF to "terrorize gun owners" and could "force law abiding citizens to register their firearms with the government."

What is true, and what I stand by in my service to our district, is that I co-sponsored H.R. 452, a bill tightly limited to two gun related crimes: trafficking in firearms and deliberately engaging in a "straw purchase." To say the bill creates a federal registry is laughable. You can read the two-page bill here.

As a gun owner, hunter, and lifetime member of the NRA, I have not and will not support legislation which establishes in any form a national registry of guns or gun owners.

The false radio spots now airing in Hampton Roads are a great example of what is so wrong in America: some special interest groups, from the left and from the right, deliberately choose to use false, inflammatory messaging not to inform but to incite. (For perspective on the group running the radio spots, it claims that the NRA is "signaling a surrender" on the Obama Administration's gun policies.) Their goal is not good policy but self-preservation which requires an "enemy" to fight if they are to raise more money. I'll defend this group's right to make charges against me, even if the charges are false. And in protecting the Second Amendment I'll defend my right to set the record straight."

Source