According Firearm Chronicles
“The number of local declarations of emergency that have been issued around the country are going to grow in the coming days, and we’ve already seen several local declarations contain language that would curtail the ability to buy and sell ammunition. Is that legal?
On today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co we speak with Amy Swearer of the Heritage Foundation and Larry Keane of the National Shooting Sports Foundation to get an idea of what’s happening right now and what the legal response might be if, in fact, a city, town, or state were to attempt to suspend the exercise of our right to keep and bear arms during this national emergency.
As Swearer explains, we’ll likely see challenges to any attempted infringement on that right, but we don’t have a lot of case law to work with because we’re swimming in uncharted waters at the moment. However, one case out of North Carolina suggests that even in a state of emergency, governments can’t simply declare our rights to be null and void.”
In 2010, the town of King, North Carolina instituted a local state of emergency based on winter storms, and that declaration included a ban on the possession of alcohol or firearms outside of the home. Under North Carolina law, the town was entitled to do so, but several individuals and groups ended up challenging the ban in court, and in 2012 a federal judge sided with the individuals who sued. “While the bans imposed … may be limited in duration, it cannot be overlooked that the statutes strip peaceable, law-abiding citizens of the right to arm themselves in defense of hearth and home, striking at the very core of the Second Amendment,” Senior U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard wrote in his order.
We may very well see similar challenges in the near future, though I would encourage every gun owner to be in contact with their local officials to urge them not to take any action that could result in the deprivation of an individual’s Second Amendment rights in a state of emergency.