BELLEVUE, WA – A federal judge has issued a permanent injunction against the East St. Louis Housing Authority’s (ESLHA) ban on firearms possession by residents of government subsidized public housing and thus granting a victory to the Second Amendment Foundation, which sued the town in 2018 over the ban.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of an “N. Doe” resident who wished to protect her identity, because she is, according to the lawsuit, “hiding from a violent domestic abuser. SAF was joined by the Illinois State Rifle Association. They were represented by Glen Ellyn, Illinois attorney David Sigale.

“We are delighted with the judge’s decision, which we hope sends a message to other municipal governments that they can’t try to sneak around the two United States Supreme Court victories that SAF and its attorneys were involved in to further their efforts to ban legal firearms ownership,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – An Illinois judge has issued a permanent injunction against the Village of Deerfield, Illinois prohibiting that jurisdiction from banning so-called “assault weapons” and thus granting a victory to the Second Amendment Foundation, which sued the town in 2018 over the ban,

SAF was joined by the Illinois State Rifle Association and Deerfield resident Daniel Easterday, a lawful firearms owner. They were represented by Glen Ellyn attorney David Sigale.

“We are delighted with the judge’s decision, which we hope sends a message to other municipal governments that they can’t try to sneak around the state’s preemption statute in an effort to ban legal firearms ownership,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Last year, we were granted a temporary injunction by the circuit court, and this order making it permanent simply solidifies our position.” Read more

SNOHOMISH COUNTY JUDGE SAYS LAWSUIT v. EDMONDS GUN LAW ‘RIPE FOR DETERMINATION’

BELLEVUE, WA – A Snohomish County Superior Court judge will allow a lawsuit challenging a so-called “safe storage” ordinance in the City of Edmonds to proceed, ruling that all plaintiffs in the case have standing to challenge the ordinance as a violation of Washington State’s 35-year-old preemption law that placed sole authority for firearms regulation in the hands of the Legislature.

The case is brought by the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association and two private citizens, Brett Bass and Swan Seaburg. Judge Anita L. Farris denied a motion by the City to dismiss the case, noting that “the Plaintiff’s claim that the ordinance is preempted by state statute is ripe for determination.”

Edmonds adopted a “safe storage” requirement last year, which violates the preemption statute. SAF and NRA promptly filed suit with the two private citizens.

Judge Farris has done what King County Superior Court Judge Barbara Linde would not do when she dismissed a similar lawsuit against the City of Seattle on technical grounds after the city argued that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue. SAF and NRA have appealed her ruling. Seattle has adopted a “safe storage” requirement, possibly emboldened to challenge state preemption because it also adopted a controversial “gun violence tax” in 2015 that the State Supreme Court allowed to stand. Read more

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado

To say the least, these are challenging times in the shooting sports industry following another unthinkable tragedy, this time in Christchurch, New Zealand. Every one of these high-profile, senseless killings engulfs the world in a renewed and impassioned gun debate. The inevitable result: shaming, blame-shifting and social stigma.

Sportswriter Alan Abrahamson’s latest column in 3 Wire Sports titled “At the Olympics: No More Guns” does all of that for one of the oldest Olympic sports, while adding in a blatant slap in the face. It’s an alarmist’s reaction to a sport millions of people across the globe participate in.

His column calls for the removal of shooting as an Olympic sport. This response is in defense of USA Shooting’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes as well as our hopefuls and those safely participating in this sport on a daily basis. All of them are unwillingly stigmatized because the sports equipment they use is so negatively associated with tragedy. Read more

Despite the strenuous objections of Connecticut Supreme Court Chief Justice Richard A. Robinson, a narrow majority of Justices have ruled that the Soto v. Bushmaster case can be revived. The reversal of a lower court ruling was based on a section of the state’s Unfair Trade Practices Act (CUTPA). Using that argument, Remington, the manufacturer of the Bushmaster rifle shooter Adam Lanza used to kill 20 first graders and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, could be liable for marketing “what it knew was a weapon designed for military use to civilians like Nancy and Adam Lanza.”The court’s ruling didn’t rule on the merit of the argument, saying only the families of the victims should have the “opportunity to prove that Remington violated the CUTPA.” Using this reasoning, the judges concluded that the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act “does not bar the plaintiffs from proceeding on the single, limited theory that the defendants violated CUTPA by marketing the XM15- E2S to civilians for criminal purposes, and that those wrongful marketing tactics caused or contributed to the Sandy Hook massacre.

Accordingly, on the basis of that limited theory, we conclude that the plaintiffs have pleaded allegations sufficient to survive a motion to strike and are entitled to have the opportunity to prove their wrongful marketing allegations.” Attorneys for Remington and Camfour, the firearms distributor that sold Riverview Gun Shop the AR-15 Lanza used, held their position that the PLCCA protects them from just this type of lawsuit. The National Shooting Sports Foundation issued a statement saying the decision “is at odds with all other state and federal appellate courts that have interpreted the scope of the exception.”

The Second Amendment Foundation was more direct, calling the decision “like suing Ford or General Motors because a car they sold was stolen and used to run over a pedestrian all because the car manufacturers advertised that their car had better acceleration and performance than other vehicles.”

Firearms Retailers, NSSF Federal Suit Against ‘Enforcement Notice’ Goes Forward

NEWTOWN, Conn. — The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts today denied Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey’s attempt to stay a federal lawsuit brought by four federally-licensed Bay State firearms retailers and the National Shooting Sports Foundation® (NSSF®). The lawsuit states that Healey in her 2016 “Enforcement Notice” redefining “assault weapons” had overstepped her legal authority and deprived the retailers of their due process protections guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.

In 2018, a federal district court judge denied Healey’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit finding that the plaintiffs had asserted valid federal due process claims. In January 2019, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit dismissed Healey’s appeal of that decision, just hours after hearing oral argument.

The ruling today to deny a stay in this case, pending parallel litigation in a state court, is the third attempt by Attorney General Healey to stall a trial in federal court. “… the Enforcement Notice warrants constitutional review for vagueness without reaching the state law issue,” wrote District Judge Timothy S. Hillman. The parallel state court case filed by different retailers claims the enforcement notice is an invalid regulation that was improperly issued by the Attorney General in violation of the state’s administrative procedure act. Read more