The Supreme Court requires just four justices to agree to hear an appeal at the nation’s highest court. Four justices, including Associate Justices Clarence Thomas, Thomas Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh have all expressed concern over the court’s decade long unwillingness to address infringements on Second Amendment rights. Justice Thomas previously noted, “…the Second Amendment is a disfavored right in this Court.” That pattern has not altered with today’s petition denials. Justice Thomas, again, drew attention to this fact in his dissent.

“But today, faced with a petition challenging just such a restriction on citizens’ Second Amendment rights, the Court simply looks the other way,” Justice Thomas wrote in his dissent. Read more

“If Joe Biden would open the Constitution,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “he would find the Second Amendment. It’s obvious President Trump has already read the Second Amendment, and that Biden and his Democrats wish it didn’t exist.”

Biden has boasted on the campaign trail he would come after citizens’ firearms. He promised to put extremist anti-gunner Beto O’Rourke in charge of his administration’s gun control policies. He wants to ban whole classes of firearms and turn a fundament right into a government-regulated privilege, Gottlieb explained.

“Donald Trump takes an opportunity during nearly every public appearance to declare his loyalty, not just his ‘support,’ to the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb stated. “And what has Joe Biden done? He’ been traveling the country bragging about how he wrote the Brady gun control law, and how he would take on the so-called gun lobby and push for radical restrictions on law-abiding gun owners.

“It is clear to us that Donald Trump knows the First Amendment protects the right of people to peaceably assemble,” he continued. “But unlike Biden, the president understands that the First Amendment does not protect looting, vandalism, arson and felony assault disguised as legitimate protest. President Trump hasn’t been contributing to a bail fund project to get these criminals out of jail, as have members of Biden’s campaign staff, while Biden, himself, would like to see these people released without bail. Read more

Key filings in McDougall v. County of Ventura, including the County’s latest order, can be viewed or downloaded online at https://www.firearmspolicy.org/mcdougall.

Ronda N. Baldwin-Kennedy, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said that the County’s latest filing was a move to avoid losing the case early. “The defendants were obviously wrong on the law and had no constitutional support for their frivolous arguments, so it makes sense for them to change course now. We are delighted that this lawsuit moved the County to issue another order so that our clients and the people of Ventura County can exercise their constitutional rights.”

“The facts are that the Ventura County defendants made it a crime for individuals to patronize and operate firearm and ammunition retailers, and worse, these government officials banned travel for firearms and ammunition as ‘non-essential’. Those are precisely the kinds of actions our Constitution was designed to protect against, so we look forward to the next phase of litigation in this lawsuit,” said the plaintiffs’ co-counsel, attorney Raymond DiGuiseppe. Read more

“There is a message in Mike Garcia’s victory,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “You can be a conservative, pro-Second Amendment candidate and win in California, a state dominated politically by anti-gun Democrats, in the legislature and governor’s office in Sacramento, and within the delegation to Capitol Hill.

“Smith’s campaign was supported by the gun control lobby,” he continued, “but dollars don’t vote, people do. And people are getting tired of far-left politics that trample on fundamental rights, especially the Second Amendment. Read more

“Fast and Furious was a scandal of monumental proportions,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb recalled. “The Obama/Biden administration at first feigned ignorance, then withheld thousands of subpoenaed documents from the House Oversight Committee, claiming executive privilege until a federal court ordered them to be turned over to investigators. One ATF agent told the Committee that Fast & Furious was ‘the perfect storm of idiocy.’

“We can certainly sympathize with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,” he continued. “Under Barack Obama, Joe Biden and former Attorney General Eric Holder, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) allowed more than 2,000 firearms to get into criminal hands in Mexico. Many people have been killed, including Border Patrol agent Brian Terry. Read more

The lawsuit was filed April 9 and the case is known as McCarthy v. Baker. In reaction to the coronavirus outbreak, Gov. Baker issued an emergency order that, according to the federal complaint, eliminated “all lawful channels of access to constitutionally protected arms and ammunition by mandating the closure of all businesses that sell firearms and ammunition to the consumer public. These actions amount to a ban on obtaining modern arms for personal defense in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

“We are delighted at the decision by U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock and the swiftness with which it was reached,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Constitutional rights are never put on hold because of an emergency, including the outbreak of a virus. Too many elected officials think otherwise, and we’re having to deal with them one lawsuit a time, same as we’re taking on Governor Baker.”

Speaking from the bench during the virtual hearing, Judge Woodlock said, “There’s no justification here” for mandating the closure of gun shops. He specified that gun shops will be free to open at Noon Saturday, May 9.

“When Governor Baker lumped gun shops in with thousands of other businesses deemed ‘non-essential,’ he obviously didn’t consider the exercise of a fundamental right to be essential,” Gottlieb observed. “We can think of nothing that is more essential than exercising a right protected by the Constitution, especially during a declared state of emergency. Read more

The hint came in a concurrence on the court’s decision from Justice Brett Kavanaugh. While he shares concerns voiced by Associate Justice Samuel Alito that some state and federal courts may not be properly applying the principles of the Heller and McDonald rulings.

“The court should address that issue soon,” Justice Kavanaugh observed, “perhaps in one of the several Second Amendment cases with petitions for certiorari now pending before the Court.”

While SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb was disappointed, but not surprised by the high court’s action on the New York Case, he is encouraged that one of SAF’s four cases now up for consideration by the Supreme Court may be granted a hearing.

“The Second Amendment Foundation currently has four cases pending before the Supreme Court that could serve that purpose,” Gottlieb said, “and we hope that one or all of these cases gets heard and gives notice to lower courts that they can no longer thumb their noses at the prior rulings that protect Second Amendment rights.” Read more