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BUFFALO, NY – Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today that it has filed a new Second Amendment lawsuit challenging New York’s law banning guns in “any place of worship or religious observation.” The complaint in Hardaway v. Bruen, which was filed one month after FPC filed a lawsuit challenging multiple other “sensitive location” bans in New York, can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“The challenged Place of Worship Ban operates to deny Plaintiffs and other typical law-abiding individuals from carrying loaded, operable handguns on their person in case of confrontation for immediate self-defense in a place of worship that would otherwise permit them to carry,” argues the complaint “As Defendant Bruen’s subordinate, the First Deputy Superintendent of the State Police, has said, state ‘troopers ‘are standing ready’ to ensure the new laws are followed.’ The State Police further added ‘an easy message’ for individuals like Plaintiffs who seek to carry their firearms: ‘We have zero tolerance. If you violate this law, you will be arrested. It’s as simple as that.’”

“That New York would even consider, let alone enact, the pernicious banning of peaceable concealed carry in houses of worship goes to show how out of touch their lawmakers are with the rest of the population,” said FPC Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “Particularly at a time when houses of worship have increasingly become the targets of unlawful violence, the idea that people should be disenfranchised of their right to protect themselves, simply because they choose to exercise their right to congregate, is grotesque and immoral. Peaceable individuals need not waive some of their fundamental rights to exercise others.” Read more

SAN DIEGO, CA– Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced the filing of additional supplemental briefing in its Miller v. Bonta lawsuit, which challenges California’s ban on so-called “assault weapons.” The brief, which was requested by Judge Roger Benitez of the Southern District of California after an initial round of supplemental briefing in light of NYSRPA v. Bruen, can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“By now, this Court well understands the point: the State’s ban on firearm features finds no relevant analogue in the founding era, or otherwise,” argues the brief. “Repeating firearms themselves have existed from the founding era on, and the State has pointed to no evidence indicating that the Founders would have understood banning such firearms to be consistent with the right to keep and bear arms.”

“Despite what the California legislature may believe, the Second Amendment protects all bearable arms, even those with the ‘features’ that the state has arbitrarily prohibited,” said FPC Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “And because these arbitrary feature-based prohibitions are creatures of modern invention that have no root in the history and tradition of the country at the time of the ratification, they must be struck down under the Heller/Bruen analysis.” Read more

BUFFALO, NY – Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today that it has filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction in Hardaway v. Bruen, its lawsuit challenging New York’s law banning guns in “any place of worship or religious observation.” The motion can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“After Bruen, there is no doubt that the Second Amendment’s text ‘presumptively protects’ Plaintiffs’ intent to ‘carry[] handguns publicly for self-defense,’ including on the premises of places of worship and religious observation when those places would permit Plaintiffs to carry,” argues the motion. “And the only way the Place of Worship Ban can be found constitutional is if New York can demonstrate this outright ban is ‘consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation’ with ‘relevantly similar’ restrictions with roots in the Founding. New York cannot meet its burden.”

“The peaceable people of New York, including those who congregate at houses of worship deserve nothing short of an immediate restoration of their rights,” said FPC Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “Today’s Motion is an important step towards that end and we look forward to a prompt response from the Court.” Read more

The Second Amendment Foundation today filed suit in federal court challenging the new concealed carry statute in New York State that, among other things, prohibits concealed carry in churches.

Joining SAF in this legal action are the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc. and two private citizens, Bishop Larry A. Boyd of Buffalo and Rev. Dr. Jimmie Hardaway, Jr., of Niagara Falls. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York.

Defendants are State Police Supt. Kevin P. Bruen, Niagara County District Attorney Brian D. Seaman, and Erie County District Attorney John J. Flynn, all in their official capacities. The case is known as Hardaway v. Bruen.

The 23-page federal complaint says Hardaway and Boyd “are leaders of their respective churches, who wish to exercise their fundamental, individual right to bear arms in public for self-defense” and for the safety of their congregants, but are prohibited from doing so because the state law prevents them from doing so. Read more

SAN DIEGO, CA – Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that San Diego Superior Court Judge Katherine Bacal has issued a preliminary injunction in its lawsuit challenging California Assembly Bill 173, which requires the state’s Department of Justice to share the personal identifying information of millions of gun and ammunition owners with other parties for non-law-enforcement purposes. The ruling in Barba v. Bonta, which was affirmed by the judge in full, can be viewed at FPCLegal.org.

“Defendant responds plaintiffs cannot establish irreparable harm because the personal identifying information has already been shared with researchers as recently as November of 2021. Yet this does not account for the potential ongoing and future harms that could occur by continuous use of the information,” wrote Judge Bacal in her ruling. “Additionally. . .this does not necessarily mean that future requests for data would not occur in the interim . . .and while this motion has been pending, a massive data breach reportedly occurred that leaked personal identifying information from the firearm databases for concealed carry applicants in or about June of 2022. Accordingly, plaintiffs have shown that the balance of harms weighs in favor of issuing the injunction.”

“The California government has proven time and time again that it can’t be trusted with the private personal information of its residents,” said FPC Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “Today’s ruling reinforces what FPC has been arguing all along; that you needn’t be forced to open your front door to immoral government intrusion in order to exercise your fundamental rights.”

FPC is joined in this lawsuit by the Second Amendment Foundation, California Gun Rights Foundation, San Diego County Gun Owners PAC, Orange County Gun Owners PAC, and Inland Empire Gun Owners PAC. Read more

BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation scored a victory in a ruling by a Tennessee Appeals Court panel striking down a gun ban by a public housing authority in the community of Columbia on the grounds it violates the Second Amendment, citing recent Supreme Court language in the case of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

SAF supported Columbia resident Kinsley Braden in the case. He was represented by attorneys David G. Sigale of Wheaton, Ill., and Eugene R. Hallworth, of Columbia. The case is known as Columbia Housing & Redevelopment Corp. v. Kinsley Braden.

Writing for the three-judge panel, Judge Frank G. Clement, Jr., explained, “(I)n light of the Supreme Court’s most recent decision in Bruen and keeping in mind the presumptively unconstitutional status of Columbia Housing’s policy based on the Supreme Court’s decision in Heller, we conclude that a total ban on the ability of law-abiding residents—like Mr. Braden—to possess a handgun within their public housing unit for the purpose of self-defense is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.” Read more