According to Firearm Chronicles
U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- As local and state governments continue their massive “shelter-in-place” restrictions, California is becoming a constitutional rights battleground, pitting Second Amendment groups and individual activists against what they believe are unconstitutional over-reaches that deny people their right to keep and bear arms.
In the process, according to the latest lawsuit filed by 17 plaintiffs against 16 local governments and individuals in Northern California, and in the newest federal court action, they accuse the defendants of using “a public health crisis as political cover to impose bans and restrictions on rights they do not like.” Among the plaintiffs in this new legal action are the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition and National Rifle Association.
All three groups have been busy in the final days of March, taking legal action in some states and backing down politicians, including governors, who tried to close gun stores as “non-essential businesses.” That justification for shutting down gun stores vanished, however, when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a memorandum with suggested guidelines on “essential workforce” operations that includes “Workers supporting the operation of firearm or ammunition product manufacturers, retailers, importers, distributors, and shooting ranges.” While the CISA list is “advisory in nature,” according to the memorandum, its announcement over the weekend came as a morale booster for beleaguered gun owners and gun shop operators.
“The importance of this Second Amendment case (in California) is highlighted by the huge number of plaintiffs and defendants,” SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb.
Everytown for Gun Safety sent an email blast Monday attacking the Trump administration for determining “gun dealers and manufacturers as essential as police, first responders, hospital workers, and other workers who are risking everything to save lives during this pandemic,” calling it “a new low” for “the NRA and its allies.” These unnamed allies include several individual rights organizations and private citizens.
It’s part of an ongoing effort that appears designed to demonize the NRA in particular and marginalize those unidentified “allies.” Everytown’s Rob Wilcox, deputy director of Policy and Strategy, described the Trump administration’s policy guideline as “shameful.” In a follow-up message Tuesday, Everytown Director of Federal Affairs Sarah Trumble asserted—again singling out the NRA—that, “The NRA is using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to pursue their guns everywhere agenda and boost gun sales.” But to the plaintiffs in California and Second Amendment grassroots activists everywhere, that’s precisely what anti-gun politicians are d
Defendants in the new lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California are Alameda County, Sheriff Gregory Ahern and County Health Officer Erica Pan; Contra Costa County, County Sheriff David Livingstone and County Health Officer Chris Farnitano; Santa Clara County, County Sheriff Laurie Smith, District attorney Jeffrey Rosen and County Health officer Sara Cody; and San Mateo County, Sheriff Carlos Bolanos and County Health Officer Scott Morrow; plus the City of Pacifica and Police Chief Dan Steidle, the City of San Jose, Mayor Sam Liccardo and Police Chief Edgardo Garcia; the City of Mountain View and Police Chief Max Bosel; and the City of Pleasant Hill and its Police Chief Bryan Hill (all individuals in their official capacities).
In addition to SAF, FPC and NRA, plaintiffs in this new action are listed as the California Gun Rights Foundation, California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, Inc., three private businesses and seven private citizens. They are represented by California attorneys George M. Lee of San Francisco, and John W. Dillon of Carlsbad, and Adam Kraut of Sacramento.