SAF: Shootings Again Prove Failed Logic of CA Gun Control
The school shooting near Los Angeles and Sunday’s multiple homicide in Fresno are more examples of the failure of extremist California gun control, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.
Two students were murdered at Saugus High School last Thursday by a teenager who could not legally carry a handgun, and four people died at a residential gathering Sunday evening when unidentified gunmen opened fire. But anti-gun-rights California lawmakers have spent years adopting increasingly restrictive gun control laws that were sold to the public as schemes to prevent such horrendous crimes.
“With each new gun control law,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “California citizens were assured that the new restrictions were necessary to stop deadly crimes. But the only people to suffer the consequences are law-abiding gun owners and innocent victims.
“The Saugus school shooting should convince any rational person that lawmakers in Sacramento have perpetuated a fraud,” he observed. “They’ve known all along that their gun control agenda was only going to prevent honest citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights. Criminals, regardless of their age, have never been prevented from committing deadly crimes by California’s extremist gun laws.
Within hours of the school shooting, anti-gun Democrats were renewing their push for so-called “universal background checks” and a ban on so-called “assault weapons,” despite the fact that the alleged teen gunman couldn’t legally have the gun he used, which was a .45-caliber pistol, not a rifle. Continue reading
34th Annual National Gun Rights Policy September 20-22 in Phoenix
With guns and the Second Amendment in the political crosshairs this year, and promising to be a major issue in the 2020 national and state elections, the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms are expecting huge interest in this year’s 34th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference the weekend of Sept. 20-22 in Phoenix, Ariz.
The conference will be held at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel, 2620 W Dunlap Ave., Phoenix, AZ 85021. It is co-sponsored by SAF and CCRKBA. Hundreds of Second Amendment activists and experts from across the country are expected to attend.
The full list of speakers is not finalized, but there will be appearances by SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, nationally-syndicated radio hosts Tom Gresham (Gun Talk) and Mark Walters (Armed America Radio), SAF President Joseph Tartaro. Stephen Gutowski with the Washington Free Beacon and AWR Hawkins with Breitbart.com and many others. In addition, SAF and CCRKBA leaders will be joined by representatives from Gun Owners of America, the National Rifle Association, Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership.
The 2019 GRPC will feature panel discussions on state and national political issues ranging from gun rights to the 2020 elections outlook, legal battles and legislation. Almost 1,000 gun owners, activists and experts from across the country are pre-registered to attend, and the number is growing. The record attendance is being fueled by calls from Democratic presidential candidates for mandatory surrender of most semi-automatic firearms with gun owners facing prison terms for non-compliance.
“Just like last year’s record-setting conference,” Gottlieb said, “we will be live-streaming this year’s event and we anticipate more than 100,000 viewers. Those in attendance will go home with valuable books and other materials important to Second Amendment protection. We look forward to seeing everyone.”
Attendance is free, and on-line registration is available at www.saf.org/grpc.
Legal Challenges to Bump Stock Ban Begin Rolling In
As reported Tuesday and discussed on the GunLink Forums, the Department of Justice this week issued a new regulation reversing the BATFE’s longstanding position on bump stock devices. This regulation modifies the meaning of certain words and changes the codified definition of machine gun such that it now includes language inclusive of bump stocks.
This reclassification leads to a situation faced by many hundreds of thousands of owners of such devices whereby they must now either destroy or surrender to the BATFE their lawfully purchased property or become overnight felons in possession of illegal, unregistered machine guns.
No doubt worse than the fact that they must now hand over their property – purchased in good faith with assurance from the BATFE that the device was, in fact, not a machine gun – without compensation, is the manner in which the regulation came about.
To be certain, the regulation is causing an uproar among factions of the firearms community with talk about violations of everything from Article I of the US Constitution’s prohibition on ex post facto laws to various and sundry elements of the Bill of Rights to include the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 9th, and 10th Amendments.
The Cato Institute published a piece rightly stating that “this regulation is not an attempt to clarify a vague law, but to seize political expediency to expand the power of the executive,” continuing that they may reserve their “right to intervene in the coming litigation.”
It should come as no surprise that the first legal challenges to the Bump Stock Ban were put into motion just a few short hours after the announcement that it had been inked by Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker given that the opening shots in this legal battle were fired by some of the more prolific opposition to the change since its early stages. Continue reading
SAF, CCRKBA, JPFO: “Bill of Rights Still Includes Second Amendment”
As the nation prepares to celebrate National Bill of Rights Day on Saturday, it is important to remember that all of the rights enshrined in the first ten amendments to the Constitution are equal, and deserve the same zealous protection as all the others, the Second Amendment Foundation, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership said today.
“Despite the efforts of lobbying groups and some politicians,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “the Second Amendment has retained its position as the cornerstone of our Bill of Rights. The individual citizen’s right to keep and bear arms protects all of the other rights, including free speech and press, the right to legal counsel, the presumption of innocence, and to be secure in our persons, homes and papers against unreasonable search and seizure.
Gottlieb, who is also CCRKBA chairman, noted that these two organizations have steadfastly defended other rights, and will continue doing so “because the Bill of Rights is only as strong as its weakest link.” JPFO is a non-profit educational organization that defends human rights.
“Our mission is that of any citizen who values the liberty and freedom our nation symbolizes above all other nations of the world,” he stated. “Our Bill of Rights is the envy of every other citizen of every other country. Our Bill of Rights is the foundation upon which our nation continues to stand as the land of opportunity. It’s why so many want to come here, and why so few ever want to leave.
“Since it was ratified in 1789,” Gottlieb continued, “our Bill of Rights has weathered many a storm, not the least of which has been the almost unceasing effort to erode the protections provided by the Second Amendment. We must defend the Second as vigorously as we have defended all of our other individual rights.
“The Bill of Rights doesn’t give anything to anyone,” he observed. “It doesn’t grant rights, but it does guarantee them. Our Bill of Rights has the much tougher job of protecting our natural and fundamental rights from infringement or abridgment. Those wise old Founders understood this when they delineated our rights within the first ten amendments of the Constitution. Bill of Rights Day serves as a reminder that what we have is worth protecting.”
Kavanaugh Pick as Supreme Court Justice Receives Universal Support from Gun Groups
Trump’s Second SCOTUS Nominee Garners Wide Support from RKBA Organizations: NRA, SAF, GOA, NSSF
Just over a year after Justice Neil Gorsuch was confirmed to fill the late Antonin Scalia’s seat on the United States Supreme Court, President Trump has tapped the second SCOTUS nominee of his first term.
President Trump’s has nominated Judge Brett Kavanaugh to succeed Anthony Kennedy, who has sat on the court since being nominated by Ronald Reagan and confirmed in 1988. Since his July 9th nomination, Kavanaugh has received universal support from major gun rights organizations, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Gun Owners of America (GOA), and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).
In their statement, the NRA said that “President Trump has made another outstanding choice in nominating Brett Kavanaugh for the U.S. Supreme Court. He has an impressive record that demonstrates his strong support for the Second Amendment.” The statement also referenced Kavanaugh’s strong dissenting opinion in opposition to Washington, D.C.’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic firearms and their registration requirement which, consistent with Justice Scalia’s opinion in Heller. NRA’s Chris Cox continued, “Judge Kavanaugh has demonstrated his clear belief that the Constitution should be applied as the Framers intended.”
In a separate statement, NRA said that “Judge Brett Kavanaugh has earned NRA members’ support.” In this statement, the gun-rights organization goes into additional details on the nominee’s Second Amendment history.
SAF likewise applauded Kavanaugh’s nomination for the SCOTUS seat, saying “We’re encouraged by this nomination because by adding Judge Kavanaugh, we might see the high court become more willing to accept and rule on important Second Amendment issues, such as right-to-carry.” Second Amendment Founder and Executive VP, Alan Gottlieb, noted that “the Supreme Court has twice affirmed in the last ten years that the Second Amendment protects a fundamental, individual right to keep a firearm for home defense, but the court has yet to even begin defining the right to bear arms outside of the home or business, in public.” Gottlieb says that he hopes that Kavanaugh’s nomination would be “quickly affirmed by the Senate.”
On the topic of Senate confirmation, one potential hold-out that may have stymied Kavanaugh’s progress to Kennedy’s vacant SCOTUS seat, Rand Paul, yesterday got on board with the President’s nomination, saying that “his strong defenses of the First and Second Amendments in landmark cases show someone who isn’t afraid to challenge the status quo and will fight with backbone.” Paul concluded, “Judge Kavanaugh will have my support and my vote to confirm him to the Supreme Court.” Continue reading
DOJ, SAF Reach Settlement in Defense Distributed Lawsuit
The Department of Justice and Second Amendment Foundation have reached a settlement in SAF’s lawsuit on behalf of Cody Wilson and Defense Distributed over free speech issues related to 3-D files and other information that may be used to manufacture lawful firearms.
SAF and Defense Distributed had filed suit against the State Department under the Obama administration, challenging a May 2013 attempt to control public speech as an export under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), a Cold War-era law intended to control exports of military articles.
Under terms of the settlement, the government has agreed to waive its prior restraint against the plaintiffs, allowing them to freely publish the 3-D files and other information at issue. The government has also agreed to pay a significant portion of the plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees, and to return $10,000 in State Department registration dues paid by Defense Distributed as a result of the prior restraint.
Significantly, the government expressly acknowledges that non-automatic firearms up to .50-caliber – including modern semi-auto sporting rifles such as the popular AR-15 and similar firearms – are not inherently military.
“Not only is this a First Amendment victory for free speech, it also is a devastating blow to the gun prohibition lobby,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “For years, anti-gunners have contended that modern semi-automatic sport-utility rifles are so-called ‘weapons of war,’ and with this settlement, the government has acknowledged they are nothing of the sort.
“Under this settlement,” he continued, “the government will draft and pursue regulatory amendments that eliminate ITAR control over the technical information at the center of this case. They will transfer export jurisdiction to the Commerce Department, which does not impose prior restraint on public speech. That will allow Defense Distributed and SAF to publish information about 3-D technology.”
