Outdoor commentary and legislative issues.
California’s laws requiring gun purchasers to wait at least ten days before taking possession of their lawfully-acquired firearms are one step closer to being history, reports The Calguns Foundation, a gun rights group headquartered in the Sacramento suburb of Roseville. Read more
NSSF Statement on Jay Leno Cancellation of SHOT Show Appearance
We are clearly disappointed by Jay Leno’s decision not to perform at the 2015 SHOT Show State of the Industry Dinner. He unilaterally cancelled his promised appearance due to pressure from the anti-gun lobby, which included false statements about our industry and its commitment to genuine firearms safety, which we attempted to personally correct with him, but to no avail.
We are not deterred by their publicity seeking nor are we unfamiliar with the bullying political tactics of the gun control groups that seem to have as little respect for the First Amendment as they continually demonstrate with regard to the Second Amendment.
We are proud of the many programs that we run that meaningfully contribute to public safety including our long standing Project ChildSafe and Don’t Lie for the Other Guy initiatives in addition to our members everyday work in compliance with comprehensive federal and state laws. We will not allow the lawful commerce in firearms nor our industry to be demonized and we will continue to speak out for the Second Amendment rights of the millions of law-abiding citizens who are our customers.
Despite Mr. Leno’s cancellation, we look forward to having our biggest and best State of the Industry Dinner to date with a performer that respects the contributions of our industry and the customers it supports.
BREAKING: Calif. Gun Dealers Move to Strike Down Law Banning Handgun Ads
SACRAMENTO, CA – Moving quickly to strike down a California law that bans the on-site display of handguns and handgun ads by licensed gun dealers, lawyers for four retailers suing state Attorney General Kamala Harris and Department of Justice Bureau of Firearms Chief Stephen Lindley filed a motion for preliminary injunction today in an effort to prevent it from being enforced.
The dealers say that California Penal Code section 26820-first enacted in 1923-prevents them from displaying any “handgun or imitation handgun, or [a] placard advertising the sale or other transfer thereof anywhere that can be seen outside the four corners of its store,” and that the law “unconstitutionally prevents firearms dealers from advertising even the most basic commercial information-‘Handguns for Sale’-at their places of business.”
The sale of handguns is not only legal-it is constitutionally protected. Read more
BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today said the announcement by Buffalo, N.Y. police that they will begin confiscating guns registered to recently deceased citizens “is not simply cold-hearted, it is ghoulish.”
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said a report on Fox News affirmed something that gun rights advocates have contended for years: “Gun registration leads to confiscation.”
“The idea that police would peruse the obituaries and compare the names of recently deceased persons with their pistol permit records, and then send officers to take those guns while a family is still grieving their loss is simply unconscionable,” Gottlieb said. “This is tantamount to dancing on someone’s grave and it amounts to taking property without due process or probable cause.”
At a press conference several days ago, Buffalo Police Commissioner Daniel Derrenda announced that his agency will dispatch officers to “collect guns that belong to pistol permit holders who had died so they don’t end up in the wrong hands,” Fox News reported. Under the law, when a permit holder passes, his or her estate has only 15 days to either dispose of the firearms or surrender them to authorities, who may hold onto them for as long as two years.
“This is the kind of behavior one might expect in a police state, but not the United States,” Gottlieb observed. “But it proves that the anti-gun mindset knows no boundaries. From now on, no gun control zealot will be able to dismiss and ridicule the concerns of law-abiding firearms owners that there is no reason to fear gun registration, no matter what form it takes. This explains why gun owners are opposed to registration and other forms of record-keeping and permit laws.
“What’s worse,” he added, “is that this effort could forever drive a wedge between police and honest citizens whose only crime is that they exercised their Second Amendment rights.
“The final insult,” Gottlieb concluded, “is that 16 days after someone dies, his or her survivors could become criminals simply because they didn’t report a firearm, or maybe didn’t even know it existed. This is the most disgusting and disrespectful thing that someone could do to people who have just suffered the heartbreaking loss of a loved one. Derrenda should be ashamed.”
Nothing new here for the elite among us. It’s do as I say and that’s that! Details here…
BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has joined the Calguns Foundation and California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees in support of a lawsuit filed yesterday by four California gun dealers against State Attorney General Kamala Harris, alleging a violation of their First Amendment rights.
Actual plaintiffs in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, are Tracy Rifle and Pistol, owned by Michael Baryla; Ten Percent Firearms, owned by Wesley Morris; Sacramento Black Rifle, Inc., owned by Robert Adams, and PRK Arms, Inc., owned by Jeffrey Mullen. They are represented by attorneys Bradley A. Benbrook and Stephen Duvernay, Benbrook Law Group, PC, and UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh. Read more
“…there (was) no longer any basis on which this court (could) conclude that the District of Columbia’s total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home (was) constitutional…”
BELLEVUE, WA – The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has denied a motion by the District to reconsider its ruling in the case of Palmer v. District of Columbia, a Second Amendment Foundation case that nullified the city’s ban on carrying firearms outside of the home.
Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr., who issued an opinion in July striking down the total ban on carry as unconstitutional, wrote the five-page opinion denying the District’s motion. He reminded the District that “in light of Heller, McDonald and their progeny, there (was) no longer any basis on which this court (could) conclude that the District of Columbia’s total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home (was) constitutional under any level of scrutiny.”
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb was happy with the ruling, asserting that the District’s motion for reconsideration was “an attempt to forestall the inevitable.” Read more
“He wanted to flee for cover. So in the process of fleeing he was shot and after he was shot he grabbed his weapon and returned fire,” Lt. Sean Edwards with the Birmingham Police Department described. The good guy is being released from the hospital; the bad guy’s in critical condition. Details here…
SACRAMENTO, CA – A federal jury in Sacramento has found gun owner Ulysses S. Grant Early IV not guilty of conspiracy to make a false statement on a federal a firearm record known as an ATF Form 4473. The lengthy criminal trial, which lasted four weeks, successfully concluded for Early after more than two days of jury deliberations and two years of legal wrangling.
Early was represented by civil rights attorney Donald Kilmer of San Jose. The Calguns Foundation, a gun rights group based in Roseville, provided resources and support for his legal defense.
According to evidence presented during the trial, Early purchased a Sturm, Ruger & Co. model LCP handgun from a Roseville, California police officer in May of 2010. Under state law, a Ruger LCP can only be purchased new directly from a gun dealer by an exempted person, such as a law enforcement officer, since the gun is not included in the Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale maintained by the California Department of Justice. But the state’s handgun restrictions allow individuals to sell or transfer their “off-Roster” handguns to others, as long as the seller and buyer follow all other laws. The Calguns Foundation maintains that California’s handgun roster and microstamping regulations are unconstitutional in an unrelated civil lawsuit.
SACRAMENTO, CA – A federal jury in Sacramento has found gun owner Ulysses S. Grant Early IV not guilty of conspiracy to make a false statement on a federal a firearm record known as an ATF Form 4473. The lengthy criminal trial, which lasted four weeks, successfully concluded for Early after more than two days of jury deliberations and two years of legal wrangling.
Early was represented by civil rights attorney Donald Kilmer of San Jose. The Calguns Foundation, a gun rights group based in Roseville, provided resources and support for his legal defense.
According to evidence presented during the trial, Early purchased a Sturm, Ruger & Co. model LCP handgun from a Roseville, California police officer in May of 2010. Under state law, a Ruger LCP can only be purchased new directly from a gun dealer by an exempted person, such as a law enforcement officer, since the gun is not included in the Roster of Handguns Certified for Sale maintained by the California Department of Justice. But the state’s handgun restrictions allow individuals to sell or transfer their “off-Roster” handguns to others, as long as the seller and buyer follow all other laws. The Calguns Foundation maintains that California’s handgun roster and microstamping regulations are unconstitutional in an unrelated civil lawsuit. Read more