Category: Gun Control

SAF Sues New Jersey Governor for Depravation of Rights

BELLEVUE, WA – In a move directly linked to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit against New Jersey Gov. Philip D. Murphy and State Police Supt. Patrick J. Callahan, asserting violation of civil rights under color of law by shutting down firearms dealerships in the Garden State, thus preventing citizens from exercising their rights under the Second and Fourteenth amendments.

Murphy and Callahan are being sued in their official capacities. The case, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the State of New Jersey is known as Kashinsky v. Murphy.

Joining SAF in this action is the New Jersey Second Amendment Society, on behalf of Robert Kashinsky and Legend Firearms, a gun shop in the state. They are represented by noted civil rights attorney David Jensen.

Kashinsky sought to purchase a firearm for personal protection during the current crisis, but Murphy issued Executive Order 107 on March 21, which ordered all non-essential retail businesses closed to the public. The order does not include licensed firearms dealers on its list of “essential” businesses that may continue operating during the crisis.

“In order for New Jersey residents to purchase firearms,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “they must go through a licensed firearms retailer and pass a background check. However, Murphy’s order was subsequently followed by a notice posted on the State Police website that the agency is no longer conducting background checks.

“Gov. Murphy cannot simply suspend the Second Amendment, and neither can Supt. Callahan,” he continued. “Yet, under this emergency order, that’s exactly what they’re doing. The Constitution, and federal law, don’t allow that. New Jersey may have been the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights, but they’re the last state to recognize it.”

The lawsuit seeks an injunction restraining the defendants and everyone acting on their behalf from enforcing Executive Order 107 “to the extent it operates to flatly prohibit the purchase and sale of firearms and ammunition.”

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 650,000 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

Gun Control

SAF: Illinois Gov. Sets Example

BELLEVUE, WA — The Second Amendment Foundation today applauded Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker for including firearm and ammunition suppliers on the list of “essential businesses and operations” that will remain open during the Prairie State’s “Shelter-In-Place” emergency due to the ongoing COVID-19 Coronavirus emergency.

“When an anti-gun Democrat governor declares that essential businesses include firearm and ammunition suppliers and retailers for the purposes of safety and security, that is a really big deal,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Every governor should copy the Illinois example when issuing ‘shelter-in-place’ and business closure orders in the face of the Coronavirus.”

Three other states are already under sweeping emergency orders as the nation copes with the Coronavirus pandemic. They are New York, Pennsylvania and California.

“Depending upon how long this emergency continues,” Gottlieb observed, “many Americans may find themselves facing situations where they will need to be their own first responders. Gov. Pritzker obviously understands this, and we encourage the governors of all other states to recognize this isn’t an issue of party politics but of personal and community safety.” Read more

Gun Control

SAF to NOLA Mayor: “We Sued City Once, We’ll Do It Again”

BELLEVUE, WA — The Second Amendment Foundation today warned New Orleans Mayor Latoya Cantrell against suspending or limiting the sale of firearms and ammunition under her recently proclaimed State of Emergency due to Covid-19.

Under provisions of her proclamation, the “Emergency Authority” is empowered, if necessary, “to suspend or limit the sale, dispensing or transporting alcoholic beverages, firearms, explosives, and combustibles.”

But SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb is telling Mayor Cantrell, “Wait a minute!”

“Following Hurricane Katrina, we sued the city when then-Mayor Ray Nagin’s administration began confiscating firearms from law-abiding citizens for no good reason. The federal court ordered the city to cease confiscations.

“We sued New Orleans then, and we’ll do it again,” Gottlieb vowed. “The presence of a nasty disease does not suspend any part of the Bill of Rights, no matter what some municipal, state or even federal politician may think. Read more

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CCRKBA: State of Emergency Should Not Infringe on Citizens’ Second Amemdment Rights

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms cautions law enforcement agencies that the coronavirus emergency should not be an excuse to suspend the process required for the issuance or renewal of concealed carry permits or licenses by any law enforcement agency.

“We’ve received reports from members and concerned citizens, especially in Washington State, that local law enforcement agencies are suspending license or permit application services, including the taking of fingerprints,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “That’s unreasonable because the right to bear arms shouldn’t be subject to administrative delays. Read more

Gun Control

SAF Sues Connecticut Over Mag Limit

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and Connecticut Citizens Defense League have filed suit in Federal District Court challenging the State of Connecticut’s prohibition on ammunition magazines holding more than ten rounds, or loading more than ten cartridges into a so-called “high capacity magazine.”

The lawsuit is filed on behalf of Connecticut residents Susan Ross and Domenic Basile. Plaintiffs are represented by noted civil rights attorney David Jensen of New York.

Named as defendants are Connecticut State Police Col. Stavros Mellekas; Commissioner James C. Rovella of the state Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection, and Chief State’s Attorney Richard J. Colangelo, Jr., all in their official capacities. The case is known as Ross v. Mellekas.

The lawsuit alleges state violations of the Second and Fourteenth amendments. Since 2013, Connecticut statute has prohibited individuals from having magazines containing more than ten rounds of ammunition. Violations of the statute can be prosecuted as Class D felonies.

Ross owns a pistol with an original-capacity magazine that can hold 17 cartridges and Basile has pistols that hold 15 rounds in their magazines. Both are licensed to carry for personal and family protection, yet they justifiably worry that they could be prosecuted for carrying fully-loaded defensive sidearms under the state law. Read more

Gun Control

CCRKBA: Everytown Endorsement of Biden Sends Message for Gun Owners

‘EVERYTOWN’S BIDEN ENDORSEMENT IS ALL GUN OWNERS NEED TO KNOW,’ SAYS CCRKBA

BELLEVUE, WA — The campaign endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden by Everytown for Gun Safety—the gun prohibition lobbying group bankrolled by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg—is “All gun owners need to know about the man who wants to be their next president,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

The Associated Press reported Everytown’s endorsement on the eve of “mini-Super Tuesday” primary elections in a half-dozen states, including Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri and Washington.

“There’s nothing subtle about this endorsement,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Everytown President John Feinblatt told the Associated Press that Biden’s gun control record is clear. Biden supported the Brady Bill in 1993, he opposed the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, and he’s backed every gun control measure to ever come along.

“On top of that,” Gottlieb continued, “embracing gun ban extremist Beto O’Rourke recently in Texas was clearly a warning that if he’s elected president, Biden will make good on his threats to make radical gun control a top priority.” Read more

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CCRKBA: Biden Names Beto as “Point Man” on Gun Control

BELLEVUE, WA – Democrat Joe Biden made it clear in Texas that he despises American gun owners by declaring former rival Beto O’Rourke, the gun-grabbing former Texas congressman, as his point man on what he called “the gun problem,” the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“For Biden to embrace Beto should erase any doubt where the former vice president truly stands on gun rights,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Months ago, we vowed to let nobody forget O’Rourke’s brazen threat to take away people’s firearms, and we meant it.”

O’Rourke’s presidential campaign crumbled after he declared during a debate in Houston, “Hell, yes, we’re going to take your AR15, your AK47.” When nobody else on stage at the time made any effort at all to counter the statement, Gottlieb said Democrats had officially become the “Party of Gun Confiscation.” Read more

Gun Control

SAF Petitions SCOTUS for Review of Rodriguez

BELLEVUE, WA – Attorneys for the Second Amendment Foundation have filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of their case challenging the City of San Jose and its police department in a case involving the seizure of legally-owned firearms and refusal to return them.

This makes the fourth SAF case now awaiting action by the high court. No other gun rights organization has ever had this many pending cases submitted to the Supreme Court at the same time, said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb.

SAF is joined by the California Gun Rights Foundation on behalf of plaintiff Lori Rodriguez. Her firearms were seized in 2013 after her husband was taken to a hospital on a mental health issue. A San Jose police officer at the time advised Rodriguez he had authority to seize all firearms in the residence, including those belonging solely to her, which were all locked in a California-approved safe. The guns were seized without a warrant, and over Rodriguez’s objection. Read more

Gun Control

CCRKBA: Sanders Misled on Background Checks

BELLEVUE, WA – Targeting what it calls “harmfully misleading” information, Twitter has identified a tweet from presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders that shows he was all wet when he claimed 40 percent of gun sales in the U.S. didn’t include a background check, so the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is calling on Sanders to correct the error and apologize.

“Truth always seems to be the first casualty when gun control advocates start talking,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “but Bernie ought to know better. That 40 percent claim has been debunked so many times in the past, especially when Barack Obama used it, that one would think Sanders might have heard about it. The Washington Post Fact Checker took Obama to the wood shed when he repeated the claim a few years ago, and surely Sanders must remember. He can’t be that long in the tooth.”

Sanders’ Twitter post said this: “Forty percent of the guns in this country are sold without any background checks. We have to end the absurdity of the gun show loophole.” NBC News first reported on the Twitter effort Thursday.

“Bernie’s estimate comes from a very small telephone survey done more than 25 years ago, during the Clinton administration, and it has been discredited,” Gottlieb noted. “But for some reason, this 40 percent claim has become something of an urban legend that too many people persist in repeating. Maybe they think that if they say it often enough, it will become the truth. Read more

Gun Control

SAF Warns of “Toolkit” for Gun Control Lobbying

The Second Amendment Foundation is cautioning the public about a new “toolkit” for gun control lobbying groups to help them campaign for passage of so-called “red flag” laws that create “Extreme Risk Protection Orders” designed to take firearms from people based on allegations from family members, intimate partners or others, raising concerns about due process.

The document was produced jointly by the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the Giffords gun control group and the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence.

“This document,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “raises alarms because there’s a lot in it about taking someone’s guns, but only two paragraphs about returning firearms to their rightful owner.” Read more

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