NEW ORLEANS – Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) responded today to the opening brief filed by the federal government at the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of United States v. Brown. In Brown, the government charged the defendant for violating 18 U.S.C. § 922(o). The district court dismissed the charge against Brown earlier this year, holding that the ban violates the Second Amendment as applied to him. The government then appealed to the Fifth Circuit.

The brief, filed today by Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi Patrick Lemon, argued that “machineguns are not the kind of arms protected by the Second Amendment,” and that America’s “history of regulating dangerous and unusual weapons confirms [the federal machine gun ban’s] constitutionality.”

Said FPC President Brandon Combs, “Acting U.S. Attorney Lemon’s horrifically flawed brief is unprincipled and an incredible affront to the People and our constitutionally protected rights. Not only does this lemon of a brief expressly advance anti-liberty arguments, it went so far as to cite the radically anti-Second Amendment Everytown propaganda publication, The Trace, in support of its position. This brief could not be less consistent with President Trump’s ‘Protecting Second Amendment Rights’ executive order.”

Combs continued, “This insanely offensive brief should never have been filed in any court, let alone at the Fifth Circuit. It should be immediately withdrawn and thrown into the trash, along with Mr. Lemon’s ability to make these filings in the future. This is a prime example of why President Trump should appoint a competent Second Amendment czar to coordinate the administration’s agenda across the government and with stakeholders in Second Amendment litigation. Our rights must be protected at all costs and the American people are counting on President Trump and Attorney General Bondi to fulfill their promise to do just that.” Read more

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that it has filed a motion for summary judgment in its Second Amendment lawsuit challenging laws prohibiting individuals from carrying firearms at certain locations in the State of Texas.

Summary

Texas criminal law bans the carriage of firearms at certain locations, including in any business where alcohol comprises 51% or more of sales (even if the individual is not consuming alcohol); at racetracks; and at sporting events.

Through the case, FPC and our co-plaintiffs are working to have these laws declared unconstitutional and enjoined from enforcement.

What We’re Working to Achieve

The Ziegenfuss case is part of FPC’s high-impact strategic litigation program, FPC Law, aimed at eliminating immoral laws and creating a world of maximal liberty. This case is part of FPC’s work to eliminate unconstitutional locational restrictions throughout the United States.

Through this lawsuit, we are working to achieve:

• • A federal court declaration holding that these laws are unconstitutional.
  • An injunction blocking enforcement of Texas’ carry bans in the above locations.
  • The ability for peaceable people to travel to ordinary public places while armed for self-defense and lawful purposes.

Read more

NSSF®, condemns Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ signature of a new law that unconstitutionally infringes on the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens in his state to keep and bear arms. Gov. Polis signed SB25-003 into law, which bans the sale of the most popular selling rifle in America – the Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR) – unless Coloradans obtain from their county sheriff approval, based on subjective criteria, a permit-to-purchase semiautomatic firearms capable of accepting detachable magazines.

“This law is unconstitutional on its face. It is a gun control group spurred attack on the Second Amendment rights of those who follow the law,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF’s Senior Vice President and General Counsel. “Colorado lawmakers who claim Gov. Polis’ gun ban will make their state safer have yet to offer legislation that would hold criminals accountable for the criminal misuse of firearms. Instead, they violate the rights of those who obey the law.

Colorado’s SB25-003 makes Second Amendment rights in Colorado only permissible with a state-approved permission slip. It is an attack on the lawful sale of the most popular-selling centerfire rifles in America – the MSR or AR-15 – of which there are over 30 million in circulation today. Read more

BELLEVUE, Wash. —— While the gun prohibition lobby is lamenting reported reductions in staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is applauding the Trump administration cuts, which will hopefully take the CDC out of the gun control arena, at least for the foreseeable future.

“With these reductions,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “the government is no longer treating gun ownership as a communicable disease.”

The staff reductions, announced by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have caused tremors within the gun control community. Critics are complaining the cuts will undermine the federal government’s ability to combat so-called “gun violence” research.

“Ever since the CDC inserted itself into the gun rights debate,” Gottlieb observed, “the agency has spent millions of dollars to promote the notion that gun-related violence is a public health issue, and they’ve mostly gotten away with it, thanks largely to their allies in the media treating everything they say as gospel. But it’s not a ‘health crisis,’ it’s a crime problem, and the antidote is not restricting the rights of law-abiding gun owners, which CDC research invariably seems to suggest, but instead restricting the freedom of violent repeat offenders. Read more

Track Legislation in Your State with

the Sportsmen’s Alliance Legislative Action Center!

NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, filed a lawsuit Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland seeking to block Maryland’s Gun Industry Accountability Act, or House Bill 947, that attempts to circumvent the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). The PLCAA prohibits frivolous lawsuits against members of the firearm industry for the criminal misuse of lawfully sold legal firearms by remote third parties. NSSF also filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin enforcement of the law by Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown.

Maryland’s Gun Industry Accountability Act is part of a coordinated effort by antigun state legislatures, their attorneys general and gun control special interest groups to engage in lawfare against the firearm industry as an “end run” around the bipartisan PLCAA which Congress passed in 2005. Read more

The State of Colorado has followed California’s radically anti-rights example by enacting unconstitutional new taxes on firearms, parts, and ammunition. This abusive new strategy from these states is dangerous and must be stopped. That is why the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) has filed a new Second Amendment lawsuit challenging Colorado’s new tax that targets gun owners and their constitutionally protected rights.

What We’re Working to Achieve

We are working to accomplish two things through this lawsuit:

1) Permanently ending this unconstitutional tax in Colorado; and,

2) Ending similar taxes on guns and ammunition nationwide.

Get in the Fight — Support the Case! Read more

The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is calling a decision by Lake County, Ill., Judge Jorge L. Ortiz to allow a wrongful death lawsuit against Smith & Wesson to proceed “outrageous.”

Seven people were killed and dozens more were injured when Robert Crimo III opened fire at a July 4, 2022 parade in Highland Park. He has pleaded guilty in the case and will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. His father also pleaded guilty on seven felony counts of reckless conduct for signing his son’s Illinois Firearm Ownership Identification (FOID) card, according to a report by CBS News.

“Such legal actions are precisely why Congress passed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA) back during the George W. Bush administration,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Smith & Wesson is no more responsible for the evil act committed by the Highland Park shooter than a car manufacturer would be if some drunk behind the wheel smashed into a school bus and caused a fatal crash.”

“Smith & Wesson, like any number of other manufacturers in other industries, had absolutely no control over the criminal misuse of their product,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Allowing these types of lawsuits to proceed only invites further litigation against firearms manufacturers to drive them out of business through lawfare. While such an end result may be the desired effect by the anti-gun crowd, it would be detrimental to the exercise of Second Amendment rights and also national defense.”

More than 20 years ago, several cities tried to sue the firearms industry in an effort to hold gun makers and firearms retailers responsible for violent crimes committed by people over whom they had no control. These legal actions were dubbed “junk lawsuits” by the industry, and only succeeded in costing gun companies millions of dollars in legal fees.

“The argument today is essentially the same used almost 25 years ago,” Gottlieb recalled. “They are accusing Smith & Wesson of marketing practices aimed at teens and younger people, in violation of Illinois consumer protection laws, which is nonsense. This legal action appears solely designed to cost the company millions of dollars in an attempt to drive it out of business. We’re aware the plaintiffs have been working with billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety, which has previously supported lawsuits in an attempt to bankrupt the firearms industry, thus depriving consumers from purchasing firearms and exercising their rights under the Second Amendment.”

For more information, visit saf.org. Read more