BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and Defense Distributed have filed their final summary judgment brief with the federal court in Texas in the case of VanDerStok v. Garland, which challenges the authority of the Justice Department and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to regulate items that are not firearms, as if they were firearms.

The brief was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division.

SAF and Defense Distributed have taken a unique approach, alleging the agencies violated the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) by both (1) failing to consider the history that Bruen deems constitutionally mandatory and (2) using balancing analytics that Bruen deems constitutionally improper.

“The ATF is trying to wriggle out of this,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “but we’re not going to let them. Clearly the agencies violated the APA, and in the process used means-end scrutiny to make their decision, which the Supreme Court threw out in the 2022 Bruen ruling.” Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – Attorneys representing the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a lawsuit challenging New York State’s so-called “Anti-Carry Default” law have filed an appeals court brief in the case with the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals, responding to the state’s appeal of its lower court loss. The case is known as Christian v. Nigrelli.

Joining SAF are the Firearms Policy Coalition and a private citizen, Brett Christian, for whom the case is named. They are represented by attorneys Nicolas J. Rotsko at Phillips Lytle LLP in Buffalo and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and John W. Tienken at Cooper & Kirk LLC in Washington, D.C. Defendants are New York State Police Supt. Steven A. Nigrelli, and Erie County District Attorney John L. Flynn, in their official capacities.

In their brief, plaintiffs note how Christian was able to legally carry his sidearm for personal protection prior to Sept. 1, 2022, the effective date of New York’s new gun control law. The law was hastily passed in reaction to the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which nullified the state’s previous law requiring “proper cause” in order to obtain a concealed carry permit. The new law attempts to circumvent the high court’s Bruin doctrine regarding Second Amendment cases. Read more

Video: NRA America’s 1st Freedom Video Why the Gun-Control Crowd Loathes John Lott

Now on A1F.com: John Lott, founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, explains why gun-control groups and many in the mainstream media call him a “debunked researcher” and why they’ve spent years doing all they can to disparage, delegitimize and cancel him.

Watch this video interview at A1F.com.

Plaintiffs in a case supported financially by the Second Amendment Foundation challenging a concealed carry ban on Illinois Public Transportation have filed a memorandum supporting their earlier motion for summary judgment in the case.

The memorandum was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Western Division. Plaintiffs in the case are Benjamin Schoenthal, Mark Wroblewski, Joseph Vesel and Douglas Winston. They are all residents of counties in northern Illinois in the greater Chicago area, and all are SAF members. They are represented by attorney David Sigale of Wheaton, Ill. The case is known as Schoenthal v. Raoul.

Defendants are Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and State’s Attorneys Rick Amato (DeKalb County), Robert Berlin (DuPage County), Kimberly M. Foxx (Cook County) and Eric Rinehart (Lake County), all in their official capacities.

According to the memorandum, Illinois bans law-abiding citizens, who are licensed to carry firearms under Illinois law from carrying their firearms for self-defense “on or into . . . [a]ny bus, train, or form of transportation paid for in whole or in part with public funds, and any building, real property, and parking area under the control of a public transportation facility paid for in whole or in part with public funds.” They contend the Public Transportation carry ban is unconstitutional. Read more

A defendant in the Second Amendment Foundation’s challenge of New York’s gun control law has filed a brief with the federal appeals court supporting the plaintiffs’ application for a preliminary injunction, a move which SAF’s Alan Gottlieb welcomed as a pleasant surprise. The case is known as Hardaway, Jr. v. Nigrelli.

Gottlieb, who is SAF’s founder and executive vice president, said the brief filed by Niagara County, N.Y. District Attorney Brian D. Seaman reinforces plaintiffs’ assertion that the gun control law, which prohibits concealed carry in broadly-defined “sensitive places” including places of worship, is unconstitutional.

Seaman’s brief states he supports the application for a preliminary injunction “for the purpose of furthering a judicial determination as to the constitutionality of New York Penal Law,” adding, “Therefore, the Court should affirm the Decision and Order of the district court granting the Plaintiffs-Appellees’ application for a preliminary injunction.” Read more

The Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in the case of Miller v. Bonta, challenging California’s ban on so-called “assault weapons,” have filed a responding brief in the case, countering defense arguments and strategies already rejected by federal courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.

“Our reply takes the state to task for going directly against the instructions of the federal court,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The state spent its entire 25-page brief trying to re-litigate the case, essentially arguing for ‘interest balancing’ by the court, which the Supreme Court nixed last year in its landmark Bruen ruling. The only logical conclusion is that the State of California is stalling, trying to delay the inevitable ruling that the ban on semiautomatic rifles is unconstitutional.” Read more