Category: Gun Control

NLCA Files Brief in Lawsuit Against ATF’s Bump Stock Final Rule

The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a reply brief in Cargill v. Garland, et al. in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The lawsuit seeks to overturn the federal ban on bump stocks and halt its enforcement. NCLA contends that only Congress, not an administrative agency like the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), can write criminal laws such as the ban on bump stocks.

This case was the first challenge to ATF’s bump stock ban to go to trial, last September. Instead of shutting down an administrative shortcut and restoring constitutional lawmaking principles, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas turned a blind eye to numerous legal discrepancies caused by ATF’s unauthorized revision of a federal statute. Even though the Rule’s promulgation involved determining the scope of criminal liability, which is solely Congress’ responsibility, the district court concluded that bump stocks have always been prohibited by the statute—echoing ATF’s distorted claim that its rule is “interpretive” not “legislative” in nature. Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

Attorneys General Oppose Biden’s ATF Director Nominee

HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen and 19 other state attorneys general today called on the U.S. Senate to reject David Chipman’s confirmation as director of the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), citing concerns over his approach to public safety and Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.

In a letter to U.S. Senate Republican and Democratic leadership, Knudsen and the coalition of attorneys general outlined the threat President Joe Biden’s ATF nominee would pose to law-abiding gun owners if confirmed to lead the agency responsible for regulating firearms. Chipman has a long history of anti-gun rights lobbying and activism.

“Mr. Chipman has a First Amendment right as a private citizen to work for these political organizations and to lobby for the taxation, registration, and even confiscation of firearms. Americans likewise have the Second Amendment to protect their God-given rights to keep and bear arms,” Knudsen and the attorneys general wrote. “Accordingly, we ask you to oppose Mr. Chipman’s confirmation to this important position and demand President Biden nominate someone who is not hostile to our rights and way of life.”

ATF agents play an important role in upholding the public safety of communities around the country and will be disserved by an agency director with a political agenda. Americans’ Second Amendment rights do not need to be infringed to keep them safe from violent criminals.

“Its agents deserve a director who will inspire confidence from the people they serve. Given Mr. Chipman’s history of anti-gun lobbying and political activism, Americans cannot be reasonably expected to believe he will be an unbiased enforcer of current laws,” the letter stated. “As the chief legal and law enforcement officers in our respective states, we are concerned that Mr. Chipman will make Americans less safe by diverting ATF resources to attack the rights of law-abiding gun owners instead of cracking down on violent criminals and criminal organizations.”

Attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and West Virginia also signed onto Knudsen’s letter.

Click here to view the letter.

CONTACT: Kyler Nerison | kyler.nerison@mt.gov

Firearms, Gun Control

SCI Prevails in Lead Ammunition Case: State Regulations Upheld

By Safari Club International

Tucson, AZ – Safari Club International (SCI) has successfully defended a lawsuit brought by anti-hunting groups attempting to ban lead ammunition in Arizona’s Kaibab National Forest.

That lawsuit aimed to restrict hunting access on the fabricated grounds of a federal environmental law violation, and the issue has bounced around the courts for the last several years. In April 2021, however, a federal judge once again sided with SCI and the National Rifle Association (NRA) in allowing the use of lead ammunition as provided by Arizona law.

“This ruling not only preserves the freedom to hunt in an accurate, cost-effective, and accessible way, but it also upholds state authority in the regulation of ammunition use on Forest Service lands,” said Laird Hamberlin, CEO of SCI. “And it is yet another SCI win against anti-hunting groups seeking to destroy our hunting heritage.”

The case is part of a long-running series of lawsuits brought by the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), a group that opposes hunting, that has challenged the use of lead ammunition in the Kaibab National Forest. CBD has claimed that the U.S. Forest Service violates the Re- sources Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), a federal solid waste law, by allowing the use of lead ammo for hunting. Although this law is typically applied to manufacturing and industrial sites, CBD has tried repeatedly to expand its reach to cover lead ammo left behind in gut piles, arguing that the leftover solid waste has negatively impacted populations of the California condor, which is listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Since the first challenge in 2012, the case has ping-ponged back and forth between the district court in Arizona and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Arizona law permits the use of lead bullets. The CBD cases have been an obvious attempt to diminish state law and move more control to federal regulation. However, the federal government has no authority over ammunition use on the state level, and the judge’s decision affirms that the RRCA, a law intended for industrial waste, cannot be convoluted to limit hunting access.

As SCI has always maintained, hunters, of course, are free to choose alternatives to lead ammunition–yet the choice must remain with the individual hunter. While it is commonly understood that excessive lead exposure can be harmful, there is insufficient research and data to show that hunting with lead ammunition can hurt habitat or wildlife, or humans eating game meat harvested with lead ammunition.

As the NRA has pointed out, California, in 2007, banned the use of lead ammunition for hunting big game in the California Condor zone. Despite 99-percent hunter compliance, the ban has failed to reduce lead poisoning in condors. It is likely that industrial lead compounds, which are much different from the metallic lead used in ammunition, are responsible for many of the lead poisonings falsely attributed to lead ammunition. Read more

Gun Control, Hunting

NRA Responds to Rejection of Texas Bankruptcy

Court Finds That NRA’s Move to Texas Could Still Be Accomplished Outside Bankruptcy

Fairfax, Va. – In response to today’s dismissal of a prior bankruptcy filing, the National Rifle Association of America (“NRA”) announced that it will continue to fight on all fronts in the interests of its mission and its members.

The New York Attorney General and others had aligned against the NRA in opposition to the NRA’s reorganization plan announced on January 15, 2021. They sought to dismiss the NRA’s bankruptcy filing with prejudice or, in the alternative, appointment of a court-appointed trustee, to take control of the Association’s business and financial affairs. Importantly, a United States Bankruptcy Court in Dallas did not appoint a Trustee or examiner, even as it ruled the Association may not proceed with the chapter 11 case. The court dismissed the bankruptcy filing without prejudice, meaning the NRA does have the option to file a new bankruptcy case.

During a 12-day hearing that occurred over approximately four weeks, the NRA established that it had adopted new policies and accounting controls, displaced many “insiders” who had allegedly abused the Association, and accepted reparations for costs voluntarily determined to be excess benefits. The hearing proceedings focused on the NRA’s compliance efforts, and the organization’s renewed commitment to good governance.

In an opinion, dated May 11, 2021, the Hon. Harlin D. Hale, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Texas, wrote, “In short, the testimony…suggests that the NRA now understands the importance of compliance. Outside of bankruptcy, the NRA can pay its creditors, continue to fulfill its mission, continue to improve its governance and internal controls, contest dissolution in the NYAG Enforcement Action, and pursue the legal steps necessary to leave New York.” Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

NSSF Commends Sen. Cornyn’s Concealed Carry Reciprocity Legislation

GW:  This legislation has been tendered before and stands a snowball’s chance in hell with the Dems in power.  Good idea.  Bad timing.

Legislation Would End Patchwork of Confusing Gun Law for CC Permit Holders

NEWTOWN, Conn. – The NSSF®, the firearm industry’s trade association, commends U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s (R-Texas) introduction of S. 1522, the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act. The legislation was introduced with 30 original co-sponsors – over 30 percent of the U.S. Senate – to protect law-abiding concealed carry permit holders from being forced to navigate a patchwork of varying gun control laws when crossing state lines.

The bill aims to eliminate the confusion of varying state-by-state laws and provide protection for Second Amendment rights for permit holders. The legislation would allow handgun owners who are legally permitted and authorized by their home state to carry a concealed firearm in other states while complying with the laws of each state – much in the same way a driver’s license is recognized. Read more

Gun Control

Ninth Circuit Vacates 3-D Printing Case Injunction, Tells Lower Court to Dismiss

NINTH CIRCUIT VACATES INJUNCTION IN 3-D

PRINTING CASE, TELLS LOWER COURT TO DISMISS

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation is applauding the Ninth U.S. District Court of Appeals for its decision to vacate an injunction obtained earlier in a lawsuit filed by 22 state attorneys general and the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, against an agreement between the State and Commerce departments and SAF and Defense Distributed allowing them to post data relating to 3-D printing of firearms on the Internet. The case is known as State of Washington v. U.S. Department of State.

“This is a humongous loss for anti-gun Democrat State Attorneys General,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “They consistently attack Second Amendment rights any way they can.

“This legal debacle was led by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson,” he continued, “who became famous for suing the Trump administration in a series of partisan legal actions that cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

“SAF and Defense Distributed look forward to sharing technical firearms information with millions of interested people on the Internet,” Gottlieb added.

The Ninth Circuit panel remanded the case back to the district court with instructions to dismiss. Read more

Gun Control

Illinois Judge Rules FOID Card Unconstitutional

BELLEVUE, WA – An Illinois Circuit Court Judge in White County has ruled the requirement for possessing a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card to possess a gun in the home is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.

The case is known as Illinois v. Vivian Claudine Brown. Her case is supported by the Second Amendment Foundation and Illinois State Rifle Association. According to Brown’s attorney, David Sigale of Wheaton, Ill., this is the second time a judge has declared the FOID Card Act unconstitutional, dismissing the charges against Brown, who had a bolt-action rifle in her home, but did not possess an FOID card.

“The FOID Card requirement in order to exercise the constitutionally enumerated right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment clearly goes too far in this case,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. As White County Circuit Judge T. Scott Webb notes in his ruling, ‘It simply cannot be the case that a citizen must pay a fee in order to exercise a core individual Second Amendment right within their own home.’ For too long, Illinois has been treating this right like a regulated government privilege and that needs to stop.” Read more

Gun Control

2A Groups Celebrate Supreme Court Decision to Hear Second Amendment Case

Gun rights organizations are hailing yesterday’s announcement by the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a Second Amendment right-to-carry case challenging New York State’s restrictive gun control law. According to the groups, a favorable ruling in this case will almost certainly impact challenges to similar laws in other states and clarify the questions the Court has avoided since the McDonald v. Chicago case decided in June 2010.

“This case was made possible by the Second Amendment Foundation’s Supreme Court victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago that incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14th Amendment,” says SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “SAF’s victory in that case built the foundation for this and other lawsuits against states and localities to be heard by the Supreme Court to protect and expand gun rights, and we are proud of that.”

Gun Control

SAF Files Federal Challenge to Restrictive Pennsylvania Carry Law

Second Amendment Foundation

12500 NE Tenth Place · Bellevue, WA 98005

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

SAF FILES FEDERAL CHALLENGE TO RESTRICTIVE PENNSYLVANIA CARRY LAW

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today filed a federal lawsuit challenging that state’s “laws, regulations, policies, and enforcement practices” relating to the rights of citizens wanting to bear loaded handguns outside the home, and the case involves two plaintiffs whose rights SAF was instrumental in restoring in a previous federal case.

Joining SAF are the Firearms Policy Coalition and individual citizens Julio Suarez, Daniel Binderup and Daniel Miller. They are represented by attorneys Joshua Prince of Bechtelsville, Penn., and Adam Kraut of Sacramento, Calif. Named as the defendant is Col. Robert Evanchick, commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, in his official capacity. The case is known as Suarez v. Evanchick, and was filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.

“SAF is delighted to once again be helping Julio Suarez and Daniel Binderup,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We’re proud to have helped these men restore their Second Amendment rights in court a few years ago, and this time we’re joined by our friends at FPC and Mr. Miller.

“As we say in the lawsuit,” he continued, “their rights to bear arms outside the home are being thwarted because of the state’s oppressive criminal statutes and a licensing system that has been closed under a declared emergency since 2018.” Read more

Gun Control

New McLaughlin Poll Shows Majority Support for 2A, Focus on Current Laws

A new survey by McLaughlin & Associates, a nationally-recognized polling firm based in Blauvelt, New York, shows overwhelming public support for the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and a clear majority belief that more gun control laws would not have prevented recent mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado. According to the survey results, 52.2 percent of the public thinks better enforcement of existing gun laws is the right approach to reducing violent crime, and 55.5 percent want politicians to focus on current laws rather than enact more laws (36.1%). Importantly, 58.1 percent of Americans believe any proposed firearm policies should be debated and enacted through a democratic process, while only 31 percent think the president should enact policy by executive order.
Gun Control
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