BELLEVUE, WA – The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that individuals convicted of certain non-serious misdemeanor crimes do not lose their fundamental rights under the Second Amendment in a decision involving two separate cases brought by the Second Amendment Foundation.

The unanimous ruling came from an en banc panel in the combined cases of Binderup v. the U.S. Attorney General and Suarez v. the U.S. Attorney General.

In 1990, Julio Suarez was stopped on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. At the time he was carrying a handgun and spare ammunition without a permit. He pleaded guilty in Maryland state court to the charge and received a 180-day suspended sentence and $500 fine. Daniel Binderup pleaded guilty in 1996 to a misdemeanor charge related to a consensual relationship he had with a 17-year-old female employee and received three years’ probation and a $300 fine. Neither man was ever incarcerated.

However, in both cases, the crimes could have resulted in jail time for which the federal gun law blocks firearms possession. Binderup and Suarez petitioned the Pennsylvania court in 2009 to remove the state prohibition against firearms possession, but federal law “continues to bar them from possessing firearms because their convictions have not been expunged or set aside, they have not been pardoned, and their civil rights have not been restored,” the court noted.

“Where the Second Amendment’s guarantees apply, as they do for Binderup and Suarez, ‘certain policy choices’ are ‘necessarily’ taken ‘off the table.’ Forever prohibiting them from possessing any firearm is one of those policy choices,” the appeals court said in today’s ruling.

“Today’s victory confirms that the government can’t simply disarm anyone it wishes,” stated SAF attorney Alan Gura. “At an absolute minimum, people convicted of non-serious crimes, who pose no threat to anyone, retain their fundamental rights. That this is even controversial is a matter of some concern.” Read more

BOSTON, Mass. – The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry, today announced that it will pursue legal action to challenge the “Enforcement Notice” issued by Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey that would appear to ban sales of semiautomatic rifles in the commonwealth.

“With this ‘Enforcement Action,’ the Attorney General’s office has demonstrated how little it understands about firearms and has generated considerable uncertainty and confusion,” said Lawrence G. Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “Attorney General Healey and/or her staff have overreached their authority and decided to legislate from her office without the benefit of any public process. Her actions totally disregard 18 years of Massachusetts firearm law, supported by all state regulatory agencies and understood by all concerned, in which firearm retailers have operated. The Attorney General has undermined the legislative and public process by unilaterally declaring products that were legal to be illegal. In doing so, she has endangered the livelihoods of family-owned businesses and made potential felons out of tens of thousands of law-abiding citizens.”

“This unlawful overstepping of power must be challenged,” Keane said. NSSF has retained Michael Sullivan of the Ashcroft Law Firm, who is a former United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and former acting director, U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Boston-based law firm of Kenney and Sams, P.C. Read more

Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc. (NYSE: RGR) is proud to announce the Ruger $5 Million Match Campaign to benefit the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (NRA-ILA). The NRA, through its Institute for Legislative Action, is leading the charge to preserve the Second Amendment and individual firearm rights of U.S. citizens.

Between August 1 and October 31, 2016, any donation made to the NRA-ILA that is affiliated with this Campaign will be matched by a donation from Ruger, up to a maximum cumulative Ruger contribution of $5,000,000. All donations will benefit the NRA-ILA’s efforts to protect the Second Amendment in the upcoming November elections. Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation today condemned attempts by the agenda-driven media, led by CBS, to provide cover for Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton’s war on gun rights by trying to debunk Republican Donald Trump’s statement Thursday night that Clinton “wants to essentially abolish the Second Amendment.”

“CBS News and others argue that Trump’s allegation is not true, and that ‘Clinton has spoken up for Second Amendment rights on several occasions,'” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “They are being disingenuous at best, and they know it.

“More than a year ago,” he recalled, “Clinton made gun control a cornerstone of her campaign. She talked about using Australia’s gun confiscation as something that might be considered. She told a private fund raiser last October that she thinks the Supreme Court was wrong on the Second Amendment, and in an interview with George Stephanopoulos, she even questioned whether the Second Amendment protects an individual right. Read more