By Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation

Americans’ Second Amendment rights will be front and center in the November election as 2020 presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden made it official, announcing U.S. Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate. The pick means Democrats will nominate one of the most antigun presidential tickets in modern history, placing Sen. Harris a heartbeat from the presidency.

She will also swing a heavy hammer to forge a platform that will punish the firearm industry and quash gun rights.

Sen. Harris tried her best to knock Biden out of the Democratic primary, but she dropped early after failing to gain voter acceptance and running out of campaign cash. More recently, she’s warmed up to her former rival and crows Biden’s praises on Everytown’s Veepstakes town hall appearances.

Golden State Gun Gaffes

Prior to her election to the U.S. Senate, Harris served as a prosecutor and then as California’s Attorney General. Despite these prominent law and order positions, she lacked basic understanding of the Second Amendment in a state with some of the strictest gun control in the country. She proclaimed she’d close by executive order the “online gun loophole” to stop “domestic terrorists with a laptop” from being “a click away” from purchasing a gun. There is, of course, no online gun sales loophole, as all firearm purchases must be completed with a face-to-face transfer and completed background check from a federally licensed firearm retailer.

As Senator from the Golden State, Sen. Harris also focused her online antigun efforts on the gun control bogeyman “ghost guns.” These are actually unfinished and unassembled parts hobbyists and gunsmiths have used since the founding of America. Sen. Harris joined with fellow gun control advocate Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) to introduce S. 3473, the Untraceable Firearms Act, despite the Department of Justice confirming they are “very rarely” used by criminals.

Eliminate the Firearm Industry

Sen. Harris shares several gun control goals with Biden that make her a perfect fit on the ticket – perhaps none more consequential than her desire to go after “gun manufacturers and dealers that break the law,” matching Biden’s goal of eliminating the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act (PLCAA). The law protects firearm manufacturers and retailers from frivolous lawsuits that are actually designed to harass and punish manufacturers for the consequences of crimes committed by individuals. It’s much like holding Ford accountable for the damages caused by drunk driving incidents. Biden wants the same thing, calling the firearm industry “the enemy”from the debate stage, and making sure the elimination of the PLCAA was included in the Democratic National Committee platform as he heads the ticket.

Sen. Harris is also in lockstep with Biden on other platform pillars. She’s for reinstating the failed 1994 Assault Weapons Ban that Biden supports, even though it was shown not to reduce crime. She declared she would deem anyone selling more than five firearms in a year to be a firearm dealer and require them to run background checks and would punish those who don’t comply with her edict.

Dismissive of Voters Concerns

Sen. Harris doesn’t seem concerned about gun voters. She dismissed American voters and their legitimate concerns about personal and community safety. While speaking with Moms Demand Action’s Shannon Watts on her Everytown Veepstakes audition, Sen. Harris nodded along and agreed as Watts demagogued and belittled the millions of Americans who have purchased firearms in 2020, including more than 2.5 million who have done so for the first time. Responding to Watts, she stated “It’s not grassroots. It’s a façade. It’s a front for some other agenda. It’s not real.”

#GUNVOTE® in November

With less than 90 days to go until the election, voters know they can’t risk their rights and the consequences a Biden-Harris ticket would bring to Second Amendment rights. NSSF launched the #GUNVOTE online resource to make sure voters are educated before they cast their vote and don’t risk their rights.

NCLA Bump Stock Ban Reply Brief Says 10th Circuit’s Chevron Waiver Ruling Deepens Circuit Split

W. Clark Aposhian v. William Barr, Attorney General of the United States, et al.

Washington, DC – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed a reply brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit to support its petition for full court review in the case of Aposhian v. Barr. NCLA argues that the panel majority committed legal error in its 2-1 decision denying Mr. Aposhian’s appeal challenging the ban on bump stocks issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The reply brief addresses the ATF’s flawed arguments against the petition for rehearing.

For example, in opposing Mr. Aposhian’s request for en banc review, the government has argued that upholding the government’s waiver of Chevron deference could create a conflict among the circuits. But a decision issued earlier this month by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals directly conflicts with the Aposhian panel’s decision, thereby eliminating the government’s rationale for denying rehearing in the Tenth Circuit.

According to the Ninth Circuit, Chevron should not be applied to defer to an agency’s statutory interpretation when, as here, the government waives any reliance on it. The Ninth Circuit has now joined at least two other circuits in holding that Chevron deference is not a standard of review but is instead just one tool for statutory interpretation—and is thus subject to waiver.

The Aposhian panel majority also erred by disregarding the rule of lenity. When a criminal statute is ambiguous, the rule of lenity dictates that the law be interpreted to the benefit of the criminal defendant. Any other interpretation risks violating fundamental due process considerations of notice and an opportunity to be heard. Although Mr. Aposhian is not charged with a crime, the statute he is challenging carries criminal penalties, so the rule of lenity applies to it.

Not only has the panel created a deep split amongst the circuits, but it also broke ranks with prior decisions of the Tenth Circuit itself and with the U.S. Supreme Court. If the Tenth Circuit denies en banc review, Mr. Aposhian will either have to appeal the denial of his preliminary injunction to the U.S. Supreme Court or return to federal district court for a trial on the merits. Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – A Seattle-based gun prohibition lobbying group has reached a new low, siding with rioters, looters and urban terrorists in Portland, Oregon in an attempt to smear law-abiding gun owners, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“We’ve seen some outrageous claims by the gun control crowd over the years,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “but Friday’s fund raising appeal that tried to blame federal agents dispatched to Portland to protect federal property for continued riots is simply unconscionable.”

The Alliance for Gun Responsibility, a billionaire-backed anti-gun rights group, claims “federal agents have descended on the city turning the largely peaceful protests against racism and police brutality into violent clashes.”

“Like their usual anti-gun rhetoric,” Gottlieb observed, “the false image of Portland’s protests the Alliance is trying to create is a myth and they know it. Street thugs, using legitimate demonstrations as cover, have rampaged in downtown Portland for about two months before the Trump administration sent federal agents to protect Government property.

“Maybe the Alliance doesn’t care about the attempts by some rioters to blind officers by shining lasers in their eyes,” he added. “What’s next, blaming match companies for the arson at the Portland Police Association offices? Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today said the recent revelation that the anti-gun-rights Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence took a federal Paycheck Protection Loan worth up to $1 million, while working to keep gun stores closed is an “outrageous exploitation of the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent people from exercising their constitutional rights.”

The Brady group reported received between $350,000 and $1 million on April 10. Likewise, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence reportedly accepted a loan worth between $150,000 and $350,000 in April, to meet payroll for 16 employees.

“SAF had to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from contributors to file lawsuits during the coronavirus shutdowns to keep gun stores open as essential businesses so Americans could exercise their Second Amendment rights,” SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said. Read more