Washington, DC

Thursday, June 17, 2010

"Individuals working to undermine Americans' right to acquire and use firearms for self-defense aid terrorists in the pursuit of their objectives," gun rights expert John M. Snyder said here today.

"This includes elected public officials such as Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Charles Schumer of New York and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and her assistant Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland," he added.

"Recent intelligence reports indicate that terrorist groups, frustrated in their attempts to target hardened objectives, are turning their attention to soft targets and plan to use small arms in attacks on individuals and smaller groups of American citizens," Snyder reported. "They also filter personnel along with other illegal aliens coming into the United States from abroad."

According to a recent Stratfor report, "jihadists…will attempt to conduct simple attacks with firearms in the near future." The Washington Examiner reported early this month that Somali illegal aliens had been released in Mexico, "that one of the men was a member of the Somali terrorist organization al Shabab, which has direct ties to al Qaeda. So far, the men have not been located." It went on to indicate a federal report pointed out that over 150,000 illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico were apprehended in the United States in 2006, and that "650 were from special interest countries."

"It's obvious," said Snyder, "that law-abiding American citizens have to have timely and facile access to the rifles, shotguns and handguns they may well need to protect their lives, the lives of others and their property from fanatic terrorists hell-bent on destruction. Public officials and others who pursue policies designed to make it difficult or impossible for people to acquire or use firearms in actuality work against the ability of citizens to protect themselves and society from terrorist activity.

"Fortunately, there are national mid-term elections in less than five months. Voters soon will have an opportunity to vote out of office any Congressman or Congresswoman responsible for maintaining people like Pelosi and Van Hollen in positions of leadership in the House of Representatives."

John M. Snyder

Director

Telum Associates, LLC

Arlington, VA

202-239-8005