By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
For Washington state Democrats pushing a restrictive gun control measure through the Legislature, a Sunday morning double-homicide in Seattle has presented a gun rights organization the chance to blast the legislation and condemn the gun control philosophy behind it.
As the Seattle Times is reporting about murder suspect Leontai Berry’s criminal background, and his apparent work with an unidentified “community organization aimed at preventing youth gun violence,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) is taking a hard swing at a gun control bill which would require a permit-to-purchase a firearm from the Washington State Patrol (WSP).
Berry is being held in the King County Jail in lieu of $5 million bail, the Times said. He is accused of gunning down 23-year-old Ozie Whitefield last Sunday morning outside of the Capri Houkah Lounge, and then fatally wounding security guard Julius Rodriguez, 29, in an exchange of gunfire as he fled. The fatal shooting made headlines earlier in the week.
CCRKBA issued a statement Thursday criticizing the gun control push, and specifically House Bill 1163, which would require law-abiding citizens to obtain a permit-to-purchase a firearm from the WSP. In order to get the permit, people would have to take an approved safety course, complete with a live-fire segment, adding considerable expense to buying a gun. Critics have asserted the proposed mandates are designed to discourage people from exercising their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
“Democrat lawmakers are pushing a Draconian permit-to-purchase bill right now at the state capitol in Olympia, “ said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “which only penalizes honest citizens by impairing their ability to purchase firearms. It would not prevent a criminal from illegally obtaining or carrying a firearm, and they know it, which makes this gun control scheme so morally reprehensible.”
The bill is scheduled to be heard by the state Senate Ways and Means Committee Friday afternoon in Olympia. If it becomes law, Gottlieb predicted, “the state will have to spend millions of taxpayer dollars, which it doesn’t have with a multi-billion-dollar deficit, and then spend even more money fighting the inevitable lawsuits which will come from this gun control boondoggle.”
In Seattle, Berry reportedly is a convicted felon and former street gang member whose mother drew a prison sentence for buying “at least five guns” for him between August 2017 and January 2019, which he subsequently sold to other street thugs. One of those guns was subsequently involved in a drive-by shooting, the Times reported.
In April 2021, Berry entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to violate the 1968 Gun Control Act, the newspaper said. He drew a five-year federal probation sentence, and he was still on probation when the shooting occurred. He could legally have a firearm, but the fact he allegedly did have one brought criticism from Gottlieb.
“That two men are now dead, and a convicted felon—who reportedly worked with an organization to prevent youth gun violence—is now in jail simply underscores how bereft of common sense the gun control crusade in Washington state has become,” he observed. “Existing gun restrictions didn’t stop the suspect from being armed and didn’t prevent two violent murders. And now, anti-gun-rights lawmakers in Olympia can only throw more impairments in the way of law-abiding citizens as their ‘solution’ to such cold-blooded crimes. New restrictions on good people will not prevent bad people from committing crimes, and to believe otherwise borders on insanity.”
Berry is scheduled for arraignment April 16.
