Category: Gun Control

SAF: Second Amendment Enabled Armed Citizen to Intervene in Texas

BELLEVUE, WA – For the third time, a legally-armed private citizen has intervened in a church shooting, once again underscoring the importance of the right to keep and bear arms, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.

Sunday’s tragic mass shooting might have been even worse, according to some officials, had not an armed “good Samaritan” fired at mass shooter Devin Patrick Kelley. It was that exchange of gunfire that caused the killer to flee Sutherland Springs with the armed citizen and another man in pursuit, eventually veering off the highway, where he apparently died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“What happened Sunday in Sutherland Springs once again demonstrates that armed, law-abiding Americans will step forward when the need arises to defend their neighbors and their communities,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “This is not the first time an armed citizen has engaged in a heroic act at a church. Read more

Gun Control

NSSF Issues Statement on Chicago Gun Trace Report

NEWTOWN, Conn. – The National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®), the trade association for the firearms and ammunition industry, today issued the following statement.

Gun Trace Report 2017 issued at the direction of the Chicago Mayor’s Office outlines a comprehensive public safety strategy, certain elements of which the firearms industry would endorse including increasing the number of police officers on the street and tough sentences for criminals who use guns. The bulk of the report, however, starts from a purposely misleading premise and represents what we have heard before as a political narrative from the administration of Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

As to the premise, a tracing request is simply a law enforcement tool. As the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF) ATF has repeatedly stated, “The appearance of [a licensed dealer] or a first unlicensed purchaser of record in association with a crime gun or in association with multiple crime guns in no way suggests that either the federal firearms licensed dealer (FFL) or the first purchaser has committed criminal acts. Rather, such information may provide a starting point for further and more detailed investigation.” (Crime Gun Trace Analysis Reports, ATF, 1998).

Federal Firearms Licensees (FFLs) are already heavily regulated. Additional laws on the state level would be redundant and burdensome without doing anything to enhance public safety, only serving to impede the lawful commerce in firearms and ultimately affecting only law-abiding citizens.

The areas of Chicago affected by the criminal misuse of firearms are under siege from criminal cartel and gang activity involved in the trafficking of illegal drugs. Even when apprehended and convicted these repeat criminals are often treated leniently by the criminal justice system. Taking criminals off the street is the only way to stem this violence.

Chicago already has some of the most stringent gun control regulations in the country and, clearly, criminals are not complying with the laws. More laws won’t work to change criminal behavior. Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

SAF, CCRKBA Issues Joint Statement on “Bump Stocks”

BELLEVUE, WA – In response to the senseless attack in Las Vegas, the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms have issued the following statement:

“The Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms support a productive dialogue concerning “bump stocks,” National Concealed Carry Reciprocity and the proposed Hearing Protection Act.

“We recognize that banning firearms accessories is not a solution to violent crime.”

Gun Control

NRA Calls For ATF Review of Bump Stocks, Congress to Pass National Reciprocity


NRA’s Wayne LaPierre and Chris Cox Issue Joint StatementFairfax, VA— The National Rifle Association today issued the following statement:”In the aftermath of the evil and senseless attack in Las Vegas, the American people are looking for answers as to how future tragedies can be prevented. Unfortunately, the first response from some politicians has been to call for more gun control. Banning guns from law-abiding Americans based on the criminal act of a madman will do nothing to prevent future attacks. This is a fact that has been proven time and again in countries across the world.

In Las Vegas, reports indicate that certain devices were used to modify the firearms involved. Despite the fact that the Obama administration approved the sale of bump fire stocks on at least two occasions, the National Rifle Association is calling on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (BATFE) to immediately review whether these devices comply with federal law. The NRA believes that devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.

In an increasingly dangerous world, the NRA remains focused on our mission: strengthening Americans’ Second Amendment freedom to defend themselves, their families and their communities. To that end, on behalf of our five million members across the country, we urge Congress to pass National Right-to-Carry reciprocity, which will allow law-abiding Americans to defend themselves and their families from acts of violence.” Read more

Firearms, Gun Control

D.C. Declines to Take Wrenn CCW Case to SCOTUS

Apparently fearing a devastating loss that could crush arbitrary concealed carry laws in a handful of states, the District of Columbia has declined to appeal its loss of a concealed carry case that struck down its “needs based” permit requirement, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) learned.

The SAF case is Wrenn v. District of Columbia. A three-judge panel on the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia struck down the city’s “good cause” requirement as unconstitutional in July. The court declined a request for an en banc panel review last month.

“We believe the city was under intense pressure to take the hit and not appeal the ruling by the U.S. District Court of Appeals,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “If the District had lost the case before the high court, it would have dealt a fatal blow to similar requirements in California, New Jersey, Maryland and New York, for example, and that prospect had anti-gun politicians in those states quaking in their shoes.”

Gottlieb recalled that the District’s loss in 2008 when the Supreme Court struck down its handgun ban as unconstitutional under the Second Amendment opened a floodgate for legal challenges to state laws. That led to SAF’s 2010 victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago, which not only nullified the Windy City’s handgun ban but more importantly incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14th Amendment. Read more

Gun Control, Self Defense

D.C. Court of Appeals Denies En Banc Hearing on DC Concealed Carry Suit

HEARING ON WRENN, A MAJOR WIN FOR SAF

BELLEVUE, WA — The U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has turned down a request from the city for an en banc hearing on the concealed carry case of Wrenn v. District of Columbia, amounting to a strategic win for the Second Amendment Foundation.

According to the court, not a single judge on the court requested a hearing. Earlier, a three-judge panel had ruled in favor of plaintiffs Brian Wrenn and SAF. The case challenges the District’s carry permit policy that requires citizens to provide a “good reason” to be issued a permit. The Appeals Court struck down that requirement.

“Ten years ago, Washington D.C.’s political leadership tried to extinguish Second Amendment rights before the Supreme Court,” noted attorney Alan Gura, who represents the plaintiffs. “The result was D.C. v. Heller, a tremendous victory for the rights of all Americans. With the court of appeals again confirming the people’s right to bear arms, Washington, D.C.’s politicians must once again ask themselves whether it makes sense to keep resisting our fundamental rights.”

Gura successfully argued both the 2008 District of Columbia v. Heller case and 2010 McDonald v. City of Chicago case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Both cases dealt directly with Second Amendment issues. Heller affirmed that the amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, and McDonald incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14thAmendment. Read more

Gun Control, Self Defense

Federal Judge Denies Chicago Motion in Gun Shop Case

BELLEVUE, WA – A federal court judge in Illinois has denied a City of Chicago motion for summary judgment and refused to dismiss a case challenging a ban of firearms sales within city limits that is backed by the Second Amendment Foundation.

It is the latest in a string of court battles between Chicago and SAF, causing SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb to observe, “We’ve already beat Chicago three times, in the McDonald case before the Supreme Court, and both Ezell 1 and Ezell 2 before the federal court of appeals. I’m reminded of the folk song by Peter, Paul and Mary that asked, ‘When will they ever learn’?”

The case involves a proposed gun shop called Second Amendment Arms (SAA), owned by R. Joseph Franzese, who submitted an application for a business license in July 2010. The city contends that the application was for an address in an area not zoned for commercial use, but Franzese argues that he was not advised about the zoning and that it had been advertised as commercial property. Besides, he contended that the city’s prohibition on gun sales “would have blocked (their) efforts no matter where (they) chose.” Read more

Gun Control

21 States’ AGs Defend Second Amendment Rights


AGs Argue 4th Circuit Ban on Modern Sporting Rifles UnconstitutionalNEWTOWN, Conn. — Twenty-one state Attorneys General have filed a joint amici curiae, or “friends of the court,” brief supporting the petitioning of the U.S. Supreme Court by plaintiffs, including the National Shooting Sports Foundation, to take up Kolbe v. Hogan, the case in which the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decided Maryland could ban semi-automatic modern sporting rifles on grounds they are “like” firearms in use by the military.

Led by West Virginia’s Patrick Morrisey, the attorneys general ask the court to consider whether the lower court inappropriately limited the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms by banning certain firearms typically owned by citizens by finding that those firearms would be most useful for military service.

Joining West Virginia’s effort are the attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming. Read more

Gun Control

Court Forces Seattle to Reveal Major ‘Gun Tax” Shortfall

BELLEVUE, WA – Acting in accordance with the order of a King County Superior Court judge, the City of Seattle on Monday afternoon revealed what had been suspected for more than a year, that its revenue from a so-called “gun violence tax” was far below projections when the tax was hastily adopted in 2015, the Second Amendment Foundation has learned.

According to court-ordered data provided to the senior editor of TheGunMag.com, a SAF-owned publication, the city collected $103,766.22. That is woefully short of the predicted $300,000 to $500,000 predicted by then-City Council President Tim Burgess when he championed the tax.

“We suspected all along that the city’s predictions were fabricated,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “That’s why we were happy to support the First Amendment-based lawsuit initiated by editor Dave Workman. Earlier this year when the city would only acknowledge that it had collected ‘less than $200,000’ we were certain that Seattle’s stubborn reluctance to reveal their actual revenue was a matter of embarrassment.” Read more

Gun Control

USCCA President on Terror and the Gun Debate

U.S. Concealed Carry Association President: “London Terror Attacks SHOULD Spark Gun Debate”
Asks Why National Media Isn’t Focusing On Failed Anti-Gun Laws in Europe, Elsewhere

Tim Schmidt, President & Founder of the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, Available for Commentary

In the aftermath of this past weekend’s terrorist attacks in London, some in the national media and anti-Second Amendment community criticized President Donald Trump for rightly observing that they did not immediately spark a renewed debate over gun control because the attackers did not use guns. But Tim Schmidt, President & Founder of the U.S. Concealed Carry Association, said today that the President’s observation was the correct one and that the recent terrorist attacks in London, Paris and elsewhere SHOULD bring the issue of failed gun control laws to the forefront including the inability of citizens in many countries to adequately protect themselves. Read more

Gun Control, Self Defense
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