Category: Gun Control

SAF Files Brief Challenging Illinois Foster Home, Day Care Gun Ban

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a reply brief in its appeal of a lower court ruling upholding an Illinois ban on firearms for the purpose of immediate self-defense in the homes of law-abiding adults licensed to provide day or foster care.

SAF is joined in this action by the Illinois State Rifle Association, Illinois Carry and two private citizens, Darin E. and Jennifer J. Miller. They are represented by attorneys David G. Sigale of Wheaton, Ill., and David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson and John D. Ohlendorf of Cooper & Kirk, PLLC, Washington, D.C.

The appeal is filed in the U.S. Court of appeals for the Seventh Circuit. The case is known as Miller v. Smith.

“Our case dates back to before the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Bruen decision in June of this year,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The Bruen ruling is fatal to the state’s position that rules allowing this gun ban are constitutional. The Bruen ruling did away with the ‘two-step’ approach to determining Second Amendment-based challenges.” Read more

Gun Control

Parties Dismiss NYC Carry Ban Lawsuit After Policy Changes Made, New York Defeated

NEW YORK, NY – Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today that, because of New York’s defeat in NYSRPA v. Bruen, New York City’s subsequent elimination of the city’s “proper cause” requirement, and the acquisition of unrestricted carry permits by all individual plaintiffs, the parties in its Greco v. NYC litigation filed a stipulation to dismiss the case as moot. The stipulation, which was approved today by Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Liman, can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“Make no mistake, the satisfactory outcome of this case is just the beginning of the larger fight to restore the rights of all New Yorkers,” said FPC Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “FPC Law is still involved in multiple active suits against New York, and will continue to drag New York lawmakers kicking and screaming into compliance with the dictates of the constitution.” Read more

Gun Control

FPC: Federal Judge Blocks New York’s “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 temporary restraining order against New York’s ban on guns in “any place of worship or religious observation.” The order in Hardaway v. Bruen, which is effective immediately, can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“The Constitution requires that individuals be permitted to use handguns for the core lawful purpose of self-defense,” wrote Judge Sinatra in his opinion. “And it protects that right outside the home and in public. Nothing in the Nation’s history or traditions presumptively closes the door on that right across every place of worship or religious observation. As in Bruen, where the Court stated that, ‘[n]othing in the Second Amendment’s text draws a home/public distinction with respect to the right to keep and bear arms,’ nothing there casts outside of its protection places of worship or religious observation. New York’s exclusion violates ‘the general right to publicly carry arms for self-defense.’ It, too, is one of the policy choices taken ‘off the table’ by the Second Amendment.”

“Today another court blocked an unconstitutional gun law, this time the ‘places of worship’ carry ban New York imposed as punishment for the Bruen decision,” said FPC Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “Today, the Court recognized what we have long argued: That no one should be forced to forgo one constitutional right in order to exercise another.” Read more

Gun Control, Self Defense

SAF, ISRA Victory in Illinois FOID Case

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation confirmed today its federal lawsuit against the Illinois State Police that compelled the agency to hire additional personnel in order to clear a backlog of applications for Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) cards because the issue has been resolved, and dismissed. The case was known as Marszalek v. Kelly.

Joining SAF in the legal action, which was filed in July 2020, were the Illinois State Rifle Association and several individual plaintiffs. The lawsuit was also supported by the Goldwater Institute of Phoenix, Ariz. Plaintiffs were represented by attorneys David Sigale of Wheaton, Ill., Gregory Bedell of Chicago, Ill., and Timothy Sandedur with the Goldwater Institute in Phoenix.

“The issue was quite simple and we’re glad it is resolved,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “In 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, restrictions were put in place in Illinois that caused the Illinois State Police to completely fail in its statutory responsibility to process applications for FOID cards in 30 days. However, the state was taking up to six months, and sometimes more, to complete this process, and the result was Illinois citizens were being denied the exercise of their Second Amendment rights.” Read more

Gun Control

Federal Court Grants TRO in New York Gun Law Challenge

BELLEVUE, WA – A federal court judge in Buffalo, N.Y. has granted a temporary restraining order in a case filed by the Second Amendment Foundation that challenges New York State’s new concealed carry law, declaring the state’s “place of worship” restriction is unconstitutional.

“Ample Supreme Court precedent addressing the individual’s right to keep and bear arms—from Heller and McDonald to its June 22 decision in Bruen—dictates that New York’s place of worship restriction is equally unconstitutional,” wrote District Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr.

The order is effective immediately and prohibits enforcement of this provision.

“We’re delighted with the quick action by Judge Sinatra,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We believe this law to be wholly in violation of not only the letter but the spirit of the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.” Read more

Gun Control, Self Defense

Federal Judge lets Anti-Gun Group Join SAF Mag Ban Case as Defendants

BELLEVUE, WA – A federal judge in Tacoma, Washington has allowed a Seattle-based gun prohibition lobbying group to intervene as a defendant in the Second Amendment Foundation’s challenge of an Evergreen State magazine ban which became effective July 1.

The billionaire-backed Alliance for Gun Responsibility requested intervention only days after the law took effect. Their motion was supported by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and State Patrol Chief John Batiste, who are defendants in the case. The Alliance supported the magazine ban as part of its gun prohibition political agenda, and Ferguson requested the legislation earlier this year.

“Apparently the Alliance is worried Ferguson isn’t capable of defending his own magazine ban in this lawsuit,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Obviously, after the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision last June, the gun ban lobby fears the state may not be able to defend any of its gun laws, including a couple passed by initiative campaigns the Alliance financed.” Read more

Gun Control

CCRKBA Rips Biden, Dems for ‘Intellectual Dishonesty’ After Raleigh Shooting

12500 N.E. Tenth Place • Bellevue, WA 98005 • www.ccrkba.org

 

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today blasted President Joe Biden and Democrats for rushing to exploit the mass shooting tragedy in Raleigh, N.C. by calling for a ban on so-called “assault weapons” when the teenage suspect used a shotgun.

“Even before the investigation had really started,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “Democrat politicians were clamoring for more gun control. Biden quickly renewed his crusade for a ban on ‘assault weapons’ and others followed his lead. To exploit such tragedies by immediately calling for additional gun control laws that would not have prevented this crime, and will not prevent other crimes, is the height of intellectual dishonesty.

“It is this kind of callous capitalization that drives gun owners away from voting for Democrats,” he continued. “The party and its president have once again revealed they will use any tragedy to promote their agenda of public disarmament.”

Published reports quote Biden demanding “action to get weapons of war off our streets,” while at the same time noting witness calls to police said the suspect was armed with a shotgun. Read more

Gun Control

FPC Statement on NJ Assembly Judiciary Committee’s Advance of A4769

TRENTON, NJ — Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) issued the following statement in response to today’s vote on A4769, which is deliberately crafted to defy the United States Supreme Court’s decisions regarding the right to keep and bear arms.

The New Jersey Assembly Judiciary Committee advanced a measure today that creates a complicated, subjective, and expensive system of hurdles to receive a government permission slip to exercise a right. Disturbingly, it also goes much further than that, creating a farcical list of prohibitions on where and how to carry arms, creating a de facto ban on effective armed self defense—in clear defiance of the natural and enumerated rights guaranteed to the People as outlined by the Supreme Court’s decision in N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 142 S. Ct. 2111 (2022). Read more

Gun Control

SAF Files Memorandum for TRO Against NY Gun Law

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and its partners have filed a HYPERLINK “https://www.saf.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Doc.-9-1-Mem-in-Support-of-Mot-for-TRO-and-Prelim-Inj.pdf” memorandum in support of their earlier motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in the case of Hardaway Jr. et.al. v. Bruen, challenging New York state’s restrictive new gun control statute.

The lawsuit was filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York. It involves Bishop Larry A. Boyd of Buffalo and Rev. Dr. Jimmie Hardaway, Jr., of Niagara Falls, who are challenging a ban on legal firearms carry in churches, which they say is unconstitutional. Joining SAF is the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc.

As explained in the new motion, since a murderer killed nine parishioners at Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2015, Reverend Hardaway has almost always carried a firearm for self-defense on Sundays and at services on the premises of the churches he has pastored. New York has now stripped Reverend Hardaway, Bishop Boyd, and other New Yorkers of their ability to defend themselves should the need arise at their places of worship. Read more

Gun Control
1 … 56 57 58 59 60 … 167