Gun Owners of America (GOA) and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) petitioned for writ of certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court in their challenge to New York’s mistakenly named “Concealed Carry Improvement Act.”

This sweeping law was passed in Albany after the Supreme Court rebuked the state’s may-issue concealed carry permitting scheme. But frustratingly, this new statute is more onerous and restrictive than the one overturned in the Bruen decision.

GOA quickly challenged this new law after its passage in federal court, where Judge Glenn Suddaby repeatedly sided with GOA by blocking several of its major provisions. Frustratingly, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals was eager to intervene on behalf of anti-gunners, keeping much of the challenged law in place, which has led to today’s filing with the Supreme Court.

The law’s provisions that are still in effect require applicants for a concealed carry license to:

• • Display “good moral character”
  • Have in person interviews with law enforcement
  • Provide four “character references”
  • Undergo 18 hours of combined training, a tremendous increase from the existing 4-hour requirement

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit that challenges Colorado’s age-based gun ban. Colorado’s Gov. Jared Polis signed a law last year that denies Second Amendment rights to adults under the age of 21, unconstitutionally denying their right to lawfully purchase any firearm.

NSSF argues in the amicus brief in Polis v. Rocky Mountain Gun Owners that Colorado’s law unconstitutionally denies the Second Amendment right to adult citizens between the ages of 18 to 20 to legally obtain a firearm at retail. Colorado’s law effectively institutes an age-based gun ban, denying the Constitutional right to keep and bear arms to adults fully-vested in the full spectrum of their civil liberties. No such restriction would ever be considered for any other right protected by the U.S. Constitution. Colorado’s law relegates the Second Amendment to a second-class right.

The U.S. District Court Judge Philip A. Brimmer ruled the law was unconstitutional in August. Colorado’s Gov. Polis appealed that decision to the 10th Circuit. Read more

Attorneys representing the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a federal challenge of the Illinois ban on modern semi-auto firearms and “large-capacity magazines” have filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court, seeking certiorari in the case of Harrel v. Raoul.

SAF is joined by the Illinois State Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., C4 Gun Store, LLC, Marengo Guns, Inc., and a private citizen, Dane Harrel, for whom the case is named. The federal complaint was originally filed in January 2023. They are represented by attorneys David Thompson, Peter Patterson, and Will Bergstrom of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC and David Sigale in Wheaton, Ill.

“Clearly,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “the Illinois gun and magazine bans are unconstitutional under principles set down in the 2008 Heller ruling and the 2022 Bruen decision. In both of those opinions, the high court said the Second Amendment protects firearms in common use. It is indisputable that modern semiautomatic rifles and magazines holding more than ten cartridges are in common use by tens of millions of U.S. citizens, so such a ban is, in the court’s own words, ‘off the table.’” Read more

NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in Barnett v. Raoul, to consider the Constitutionality of Illinois’ ban on over 1,000 models of firearms including Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) and standard-capacity magazines.

NSSF argues that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit erred in its judgment upholding the state’s ban on the purchase and possession of more than 1,000 previously lawful semiautomatic rifles, pistols and shotguns – including the most popular semiautomatic rifle in America. The state’s ban on these firearms, and standard-capacity magazines, violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Read more

The Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have once again petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari in their continuing challenge of Maryland’s ban on so-called “assault weapons.”

SAF and CCRKBA are joined in this petition by the Firearms Policy Coalition, Field Traders, LLC, and three private citizens, David Snope, Micah Schaefer and Dominic Bianchi, for whom the case is titled. The case is known as Bianchi v. Frosh. The Supreme Court in late June 2022 granted certiorari in the case, and vacated the earlier ruling by a lower federal court and then remanded the case back to the Fourth Circuit for further action based on guidelines established in the 2022 Bruen ruling.

Since being remanded, the case was fully briefed and argued before a three-judge panel for the Fourth Circuit. Inexplicably, over a year after argument was held and with no panel opinion issued, the Fourth Circuit sua sponte elected to hear the case en banc, further delaying the exercise of a fundamental right and seemingly to prevent publication of an opinion that favors the plaintiffs. Seeking certiorari before judgment is an extraordinary remedy reserved for cases of imperative public importance.

“It is clear to us this case must be decided by the Supreme Court,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The type of modern semiautomatic rifle banned in Maryland is in common use across the country, and is the most popular rifle in America. Yet, the Fourth Circuit and other courts of appeals have strained credulity to uphold such bans in the wake of the high court’s ruling in Bruen. This issue must be resolved.” Read more

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms has submitted an amicus brief to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supporting the federal lawsuit filed against California’s effort to ban gun shows at the Orange County Fairgrounds, and more broadly, state-owned property.

CCRKBA is joined by the Independence Institute. They are represented by attorneys David Kopel at the Independence Institute and Joseph G.S. Greenlee at Greenlee Law in McCall, Idaho. The case is known as B&L Productions v. Gavin Newsom. A lower court granted plaintiffs a preliminary injunction, and CCRKBA and the Independence Institute are asking that the Ninth Circuit affirm the lower court ruling. Read more

Washington, D.C. — Today, Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) filed a federal lawsuit in the Northern District of New York, challenging the state’s blanket ban on out-of-state residents being able to obtain a concealed carry permit or to have New York honor out-of-state permits.

GOA and GOF are representing several individual plaintiffs who reside in neighboring states and hold their own state’s license to carry concealed weapons. TV Host and Second Amendment Advocate Carl Higbie is one of the individual plaintiffs. Read more

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said Maryland gun owners have every right to oppose new gun control legislation, Senate Bill 488, being pushed as the new solution to violent crime, because all it does is penalize the wrong people.

“The claims by proponents of the Gun Industry Accountability Act, including Gov. Wes Moore, that this legislation will prevent criminals from committing crimes border on the preposterous,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Also, the notion that creating a Center for Firearm Violence Prevention will do anything besides build another bureaucracy is, at best, wishful thinking.” Read more