Category: Gun Control

SAF Files Memorandum in Motion for Injunction in CA Gun Show Ban Case

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a memorandum of points and authorities in support of their motion for a preliminary injunction in a case challenging California’s new statute banning gun shows.

Joining SAF in this action are the California Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc., Asian Pacific American Gun Owners Association, the Second Amendment Law Center, Inc., B&L Productions, Inc., d/b/a Crossroads of the West and four private citizens, Gerald Clark, Eric Johnson, Chad Littrell and Jan Steven Merson. They are represented by attorneys Anna M. Barvir, Michel & Associates, P.C., and Donald Kilmer, Law Offices of Donald Kilmer. The case is known as B & L Productions, Inc. et al v. Gavin Newsom et al.

The original complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. A hearing is scheduled Jan. 6, 2023.

The 33-page memorandum asserts that the purpose of the new legislation was banning gun shows statewide. The memorandum states, “There is no evidence that California’s gun shows—already more heavily regulated than other avenues for firearm sales—pose some unique threat to public safety. And California has identified no other compelling interest that might justify its ban. Instead, the legislative history reveals the legislators’ bare desire to make a ‘value statement’ about guns and gun shows and to get California out of the business of profiting from such events. In short, California’s animus for Plaintiffs, their commerce in lawful products, and the cultural aspects of these events is the not-so-hidden motivation behind the State’s action.” Read more

Gun Control

Federal Judge Grants Preliminary Injunction in NY Private Property Case

A federal judge in western New York has granted a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the “private property exclusion” tenet of the state’s new gun control law, calling it unconstitutional.

The case, known as Christian et. al. v. Nigrelli, et. al., was brought by the Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition on behalf of Brett Christian, a private citizen. U.S. District Court Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr. with the U.S. District Court in Buffalo handed down the 27-page ruling.

Noting that the private property exclusion “makes it a felony for a license holder to possess a firearm on all private property, unless the relevant property holders actually permit such possession with a sign or by express consent,” Judge Sinatra noted, “Regulation in this area is permissible only if the government demonstrates that the current enactment is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of sufficiently analogous regulations…New York fails that test.”

Judge Sinatra added, “Property owners indeed have the right to exclude. But the state may not unilaterally exercise that right and, thereby, interfere with the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens who seek to carry for self-defense outside of their own homes.”

SAF Founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb was delighted with the ruling, which was issued late Tuesday afternoon.

“New York’s efforts to dance around the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision have become a painful exercise in legal acrobatics, which it seems obvious the courts can see through,” Gottlieb observed. “This case illustrates the ridiculous lengths to which lawmakers in Albany have tried to go in their efforts to get around the letter and spirit of the high court ruling.” Read more

Gun Control

DRGO Study Shows no Link Between Legal Gun Sales and Violent Crime

BELLEVUE, WA – Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership (DRGO)—a project of the Second Amendment Foundation—has released a new study showing there is “no association between increased lawful firearm sales and rates of crime or homicide.”

The study, by DRGO member Mark Hamill, MD, FACS, FCCM, is titled “Legal Firearm Sales at State Level and Rates of Violent Crime, Property Crime, and Homicides” and is published in the Journal of Surgical Research. Dr. Hamill worked with a team of nine other doctors to reach their conclusions.

“This confirms what those of us already know who follow all the research by medical, criminology and economic experts,” said DRGO Executive Director Dr. Robert Young. “Lawful gun possession is in no way related to homicide or other crime rates, and the constant drumbeat of anti-gun researchers and activists is a house built on sand.”

“DRGO is an important project of the Second Amendment Foundation,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “because anti-gun billionaires such as Michael Bloomberg are funding research that tries to portray guns and gun ownership as a disease.”

The new report is based on a detailed, objective 50-state analysis of data from the National Instant Background Check System, the Department of Justice Uniform Crime Reporting program, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System covering the years 1999-2015.

Dr. Hamill is an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Nebraska, a longtime gun owner and a law enforcement officer in his previous career. His experience, expertise and thoroughness makes his team’s findings unimpeachable. In 2019, he published earlier research, “State Level Firearm Concealed-Carry Legislation and Rates of Homicide and Other Violent Crime” in the Journal of the American College of Surgeons. In this, he and his co-authors do the same careful work analyzing 30 years of data state-by-state. Read more

Gun Control

NSSF Challenges Delaware, N.J. ‘Public Nuisance Laws’ Allowing Frivolous Claims Against Firearms Manufacturers

WASHINGTON, D.C. — NSSF®, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, filed suits against the attorneys general of Delaware and New Jersey, challenging recently-enacted “public nuisance” laws in both states that are “specifically designed to evade the judgment of Congress – and the Constitution.”

Both Delaware and New Jersey enacted public nuisance laws allowing the state and private parties to sue firearm manufacturers for the harm caused by the criminal misuse of lawfully sold firearms. In 2005, Congress barred these sorts of baseless lawsuits when it passed the bipartisan Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). Delaware and New Jersey’s laws are preempted by the PLCAA under the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

Public nuisance lawsuits brought by municipalities against members of the firearm industry arose in the late 1990s and early 2000s to “regulate through litigation.” None of those dozens of lawsuits, including those by Wilmington, Del., and Newark, Camden County and the City of Camden, N.J., were successful. These municipal lawsuits intended to bankrupt the industry members or, through the massive cost of litigation, force them to accept settlement agreements that contained gun control provisions rejected by Congress and not supported by the American public. Delaware and New Jersey’s new laws are a blatant and unconstitutional attempt to return to an era of “regulation through litigation.” Read more

Gun Control

SAF Files Federal Lawsuit Challenging Delaware Gun Ban

Second Amendment Foundation

12500 NE Tenth Place · Bellevue, WA 98005

(425) 454-7012 · FAX (425) 451-3959 · www.saf.org

 

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a federal lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Delaware’s recently-adopted ban on so-called “assault weapons” on the grounds the legislation—known as House Bill 450—violates the Second Amendment.

Joining SAF in this legal action are the Firearms Policy Coalition, a Nevada-based group, DJJAMS, LLC, a firearms retailer in Delaware’s New Castle County, and two private citizens, Gabriel Gray and William Taylor. Named as a defendant is Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Plaintiffs are represented by attorney Bradley P. Lehman at Gellert Scali Busnenkell & Brown LLC in Wilmington. The case is known as Gray, et.al. v. Jennings.

“One week after the Supreme Court handed down its landmark Bruen decision in June,” noted SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut, “Delaware Gov. John Carney signed House Bill 450, which we believe is clearly unconstitutional. Yet this new statute categorically bans the protected conduct of possessing, self-manufacturing, transporting, importing, selling, transferring, purchasing, receiving and lawfully using constitutionally protected arms that are in common use across the nation.”

The new statute lists dozens of firearms described generically as “assault long guns” and 19 handguns described as “assault pistols,” plus so-called “copycat” firearms. Violators can be charged with a Class D felony, punishable by up to eight years in prison.

“By adopting this statute after the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling, Delaware is clearly ignoring the court, and the Second Amendment,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “This case cuts right to the heart of our mission, which is to defend the rights of gun owners by challenging egregious gun control laws in court. This law is extremism on steroids, and cannot be allowed to stand.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 700,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.

Contact: Alan Gottlieb (425) 454-7012

Firearms, Gun Control

CCRKBA: ‘Biden Exploits UVA Slayings With Dishonest Call for ‘Assault Weapons’ Ban”

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today said the Biden White House’s call for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” in response to the murder of three University of Virginia students in which a handgun was used is “a dishonest exploitation of a tragedy in a deplorable effort to advance Joe Biden’s gun ban agenda.”

“This isn’t a case of Joe Biden making a typical gaffe,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “This was a deliberate attempt by the administration to advance a cause to which Biden has been committed since he arrived in Washington 50 years ago.

“Joe Biden often doesn’t even know what state or country he’s in,” Gottlieb added, “but he knows exactly what he’s doing whenever an opportunity to push gun control comes along. And he is constantly disingenuous about it. Even the anti-gun-rights Washington Post has called Biden out for lying about guns by giving him multiple Pinocchio awards.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement in which she blatantly politicized the triple slaying that took the lives of Devin Chandler, D’Sean Perry and Lavel Davis, Jr.

“Too many families across America are bearing the awful burden of gun violence,” the statement said. “Earlier this year, President Biden signed the most significant gun safety law in nearly three decades, in addition to taking other historic actions. But we must do more. We need to enact an assault weapons ban to get weapons of war off America’s streets. House Democrats acted, and the Senate should follow.”

“This horrible crime had absolutely nothing to do with so-called ‘assault weapons,’ and the White House knows it,” Gottlieb said. “The statement, which the president had to have approved, amounts to a crass exploitation of a tragedy in a deplorable effort to advance Joe Biden’s gun ban agenda. He has fully embraced the despicable tactic of never letting a crisis go to waste, no matter how awful the situation. Read more

Gun Control

SAF Files Brief Supporting Motion for Prelim. Injunction in Calif. ‘Fee Shifting’ Case

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and its partners today filed a nine-page reply brief supporting their earlier motion for a preliminary injunction in their federal court challenge of California’s new one-way fee shifting penalty in the government’s favor that applies only to litigation challenging state gun laws.

The case is known as Miller v. Bonta. Joining SAF are plaintiffs James Miller; Ryan Peterson; John Phillips; Gunfighter Tactical, LLC; PWGG, L.P.; San Diego County Gun Owners Political Action Committee; California Gun Rights Foundation; and Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc.; John W. Dillon; Dillon Law Group, P.C.; and George M. Lee. Defendants are California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Luis Lopez, Director of the California Department of Justice Bureau of Firearms, in their official capacities. The case was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

“Our attorneys cut right to the point in this brief,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The state not only has failed to defend their new law, but they all but conceded it is unconstitutional when they acknowledged the new section was ‘a response to, and was modeled upon’ a Texas statute on abortion, which the defendants argued was unconstitutional. Read more

Gun Control

GOA Defeats NY’s Concealed Carry Improvement Act in Federal Court

Washington, D.C. – Gun Owners of America (GOA) and Gun Owners Foundation (GOF) have secured a preliminary injunction in federal district court against most of New York’s poorly named “Concealed Carry Improvement Act.” This follows GOA and GOF securing a temporary restraining order against the law in October, which was frustratingly blocked by a federal appeals court.

The ruling from Judge Glenn Suddaby, who indicated this law has imposed “unprecedented constitutional violations,“ enjoins the following provisions:

Requiring good moral character

Requiring the names and contact info of spouses and other adults in the applicant’s home

Requiring applicants to disclose social media accounts for review

The restrictions on carrying in public parks, zoos, places of worship, locations where alcohol is served, theaters, banquet halls, conferences, airports and buses, lawful protests or assemblies, and the prohibition on carrying on private property without express consent from the owner

The injunction will take effect immediately, despite the State of New York’s attempt to delay the injunction.

Erich Pratt, GOA’s Senior Vice President, issued the following statement:

“Just like we warned politicians after the Bruen decision, fall in line, or we will force you to. We are excited to see Kathy Hochul finally served a plate of humble pie, and we are fully prepared to continue the fight should she again attempt to disarm the citizens of her state at a time when her party’s policies are only escalating the danger that everyday citizens face.” Read more

Gun Control

SAF Files Motion to Intervene in Challenge of New Gov’t. ‘Firearm’ Definition

The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a motion to intervene in a federal lawsuit challenging the federal government’s new regulatory definition of a firearm, including the frame or receiver.

The case is known as VanDerStok, et.al. v. Garland, et.al. and was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division. A company known as Blackhawk Manufacturing Group, Inc., d/b/a/ 80 Percent Arms, has already been allowed to intervene as a plaintiff.

Joining SAF is Defense Distributed, a Texas-based company.

“We are intervening because our members have already suffered massive irreparable harms from this new regulatory move,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “because it contradicts the statute it is supposed to be administering. When Congress passed the Gun Control Act of 1968, it defined a firearm to include the finished frame or receiver. But the new rule expands that definition and criminalizes unfinished frames and receivers, and ‘parts kits’ that include those components.

“Furthermore,” he added, “the new rule violates the Administrative Procedures Act by failing to comply with mandates in the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling in June, and because it is essentially an exercise of legislative power it doesn’t have, because Congress could not constitutionally grant such authority to a federal agency.” Read more

Gun Control

Federal Judge Again Blocks New York “Places of Worship” Handgun Carry Ban

BUFFALO, NY – Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that United States District Judge John Sinatra, Jr. has issued a preliminary injunction against New York’s ban on guns in “any place of worship or religious observation.” The order in Hardaway v. Nigrelli, which is effective immediately and comes two weeks after a temporary restraining order was issued in this case, can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“For these reasons, New York’s place of worship exclusion ‘violates the Fourteenth Amendment in that it prevents law-abiding citizens with ordinary self defense needs from exercising their right to keep and bear arms,’” wrote Judge Sinatra in his opinion. “The State’s renewed opposition offers nothing to change the outcome. Thus, Plaintiffs remain likely to succeed on the merits of their constitutional claim.”

“Here, a stay pending appeal is not warranted,” he went on to write. “As discussed above, Plaintiffs’ constitutional rights are being violated absent a preliminary injunction. The State fails to establish irreparable injury in the absence of a stay. The balance of hardships and public interest weigh in favor of Plaintiffs, also as discussed above. Finally, it is Plaintiffs who have demonstrated that they are likely to succeed on the merits. Legislative enactments may not eviscerate the Bill of Rights. Every day they do is one too many.” Read more

Gun Control
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