GW: At least they did something – even if they realized it was illegal. Taxpayers will now pay to defend politicians who violated their oath of office to uphold the Constitution.

The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit against New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and four other officials on the grounds that the governor’s “emergency order’ prohibiting open and concealed carry in Albuquerque and surrounding Bernalillo violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution.

Joining SAF are the New Mexico Shooting Sports Association, Firearms Policy Coalition and a private citizen, Zachary Fort, who resides in Bernalillo County. They are represented by Jordon George of Aragon Moss George Jenkins, LLP who has also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction. The lawsuit and motion were filed in U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico.

In addition to Gov. Lujan Grisham, defendants are Patrick M. Allen, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health; Jason R. Bowie, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Public Safety, and W. Troy Weisler, chief of the New Mexico State Police. They are all sued individually and in their official capacities.

“Despite her clams to the contrary,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “Gov. Grisham does not have the authority to ‘suspend’ the Second Amendment for an alleged public health emergency or any other reason. Neither do any of the other defendants, nor can they legally enforce such a suspension.”

“Evidently,” added SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut, “Gov. Lujan Grisham believes she can disregard the constitution to further her own political views. We’re taking action to stop this unconstitutional exercise of power in its tracks, because it is a flagrant violation of the right of individual citizens to carry firearms in public for personal defense.

“Our motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction will prevent the state from further causing injury to the plaintiffs and other citizens under this unlawful order,” Kraut added.

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation is celebrating a small but significant victory after the community of Los Gatos, in Santa Clara County, decided to suspend enforcement of an ordinance adopted earlier this year establishing several new “sensitive areas” where legal concealed carry is prohibited.

Enforcement of the ordinance was put “on hold” after the law firm of Michel & Associates warned the city it would be sued on constitutional grounds if the new law was enforced. The law firm is representing SAF and the California Rifle & Pistol Association in this effort.

“According to published reports,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “the town is waiting to see whether litigation against pending state legislation is resolved. That’s fine with us because it means this restrictive ordinance will not be enforced.”

Designating areas as “sensitive places” where lawful concealed carry is prohibited is a strategy by gun prohibitionists to get around new guidelines set down in the 2022 Bruen ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court regarding concealed carry in public. Read more

Now on A1F.com: Johnny Joey Jones, a retired U.S. Marine, FOX Nation host and recent author, has some poignant and penetrating things to say about gun control in the military, about our freedom and more in this video interview at A1F.com.

Find this and other stories related to your right to keep and bear arms at A1F.com.

Two days after filing a federal lawsuit challenging a so-called “Red Flag” law in Maryland, the Second Amendment Foundation is announcing the launch of a new project to take subsequent legal actions against similar laws in several states.

This new initiative is called “Capture the Flag,” and it will focus on abuses and mis-application of “Extreme Risk Protection Order (ERPO)” statutes which have been adopted by 21 states and the District of Columbia.

“SAF’s ‘Capture the Flag’ initiative looks to challenge these laws that deprive individuals of their right to keep and bear arms, where appropriate, based on evidentiary standards that are constitutionally impermissible,” explained SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut, who is a practicing civil rights attorney.

Kraut said the project will initially focus on “Red Flag” laws in six states: California, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Washington.

“SAF has been concerned about these statutes since they first started showing up,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We have already taken legal action against officials in Maryland for an egregious abuse of the law against a citizen in Dorchester County. But all of these laws should raise alarms because they prioritize citizen disarmament ahead of due process, and that can easily lead to deprivation of rights under color of law.” Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a challenge of the “Final Rule” issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives redefining frames and receivers as firearms, have filed an appellee’s brief in the case, known as VanDerStok v. Garland.

Joining SAF are Defense Distributed, and JSD Supply. They are represented by Houston, Texas attorney Chad Flores.

The brief explains how ATF redefined the term “firearm” without any Congressional action. Last year, the agency announced a Rule expanding the definition of firearm to include unfinished firearm components and kits used in the process of manufacturing a firearm. SAF and its partners are asserting ATF violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). A federal district court judge agreed and concluded that ATF had acted in excess of its statutory authority, and granted summary judgment.

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb recently promised the organization will pursue this case “vigorously” as it winds through the court system.

“This case challenges the authority of the ATF to change rules and definitions of firearms without Congressional authority,” Gottlieb said. “We simply cannot allow any federal agency to make up its own rules as it goes along, without Congressional approval.” Read more

The Second Amendment Foundation and one of its members, Donald S. Willey, a 64-year-old Marine Corps veteran, have filed a federal lawsuit challenging the so-called “red flag” law enacted by the State of Maryland five years ago.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S District Court for the District of Maryland, Northern Division. Defendants are Maryland Attorney General Anthony G. Brown, Dorchester County, Dorchester County Planning and Zoning Director Susan E. Webb, and Dorchester County Sheriff James W. Phillips. All three are sued in their official capacities, and Webb is also being sued personally.

SAF and Willey are represented by attorneys Edward Andrew Paltzik and Serge Krimnus of the Bochner PLLC law firm in New York City.

According to the federal complaint, for almost two decades Dorchester County authorities have “relentlessly pursued Willey for de minimis nuisance and zoning infractions.” More than two years ago, Webb allegedly stepped up the effort by accusing Willey of operating an illegal business on his property, leaving his yard in poor condition and for an “unpermitted disturbance to a 100-foot tidewater buffer.” These complaints were ultimately withdrawn, resulting in a consent order regarding the alleged condition of Willey’s yard.

Earlier this year, one of Webb’s inspectors entered Willey’s property to conduct a compliance inspection, culminating with Webb issuing new notices for Willey to make other improvements. Several days later, Webb and one of her inspectors visited Willey’s property without advance notice, as required by the consent order. At that time, Webb allegedly berated Willey before “violently” affixing Notices of Violation to a fiberglass cover on his boat, damaging the boat cover. Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s immediate reaction to Sunday’s triple homicide at a hookah lounge in the city’s Mount Baker area “was a predictable launch pad for an attack on Washington State’s model firearms preemption law,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“Instead of encouraging people to help police solve this terrible crime and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “Mayor Harrell reminds us he is ‘partnering’ with state lawmakers to ‘end state preemption over firearms’ so the city can adopt policies which, experience tells us, will only impact law-abiding citizens and not prevent a single tragedy.

“Bruce Harrell was on the city council in 2015 when they hastily adopted the city’s notorious tax on gun and ammunition sales,” Gottlieb recalled. “In the years since, homicides have more than doubled in Seattle, the gun tax revenue has never come close to the forecast and the mayor and his allies continue blaming guns when they should be blaming the people misusing those guns.

“Mayor Harrell seems to forget that Seattle did adopt a policy—the gun tax—on the promise it would help prevent gun-related violence and the past eight years have shown it to be a total failure,” he added. “Instead of talking about getting guns off the street, how about focusing on getting criminals off the street? Read more