{"id":4293,"date":"2010-06-30T01:53:43","date_gmt":"2010-06-30T06:53:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/?p=4293"},"modified":"2010-06-30T01:53:43","modified_gmt":"2010-06-30T06:53:43","slug":"second-supreme-court-decision-kicks-off-next-round-of-lawsuits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/second-supreme-court-decision-kicks-off-next-round-of-lawsuits\/4293\/","title":{"rendered":"Second Supreme Court Decision Kicks Off Next Round of Lawsuits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"highslide\" onclick=\"return vz.expand(this)\" href=\"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/jimshepherd063010.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4294\" title=\"jimshepherd063010\" src=\"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/jimshepherd063010-300x177.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"177\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/jimshepherd063010-300x177.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/jimshepherd063010.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>When Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation tells me something  is a &#8220;call to action&#8221; in the future, I&#8217;m going to go ahead and get on  my feet. He&#8217;s marching, and everyone with him had better be ready to  move.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday, the SAF filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court  for the Eastern District of North Carolina, seeking a permanent  injunction against North Carolina&#8217;s governor, local officials and local  governments from declaring states of emergency under which private  citizens would be prohibited from exercising their right to bear arms.<\/p>\n<p>Grass Roots North Carolina, the state&#8217;s primary gun rights organization,  and three private citizens are included in the suit. The defendants in  the lawsuit read like the organizational tables of North Carolina  government: North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue; Reuben Young, secretary  of the Department of Crime Control and Public Safety; Stokes County and  the City of King.<\/p>\n<p>The basis of the lawsuit? You guessed it. The unconstitutionality of any  law that rescinds the right to firearms during a state of emergency.  The suit also alleges that a North Carolina law that allows government  officials to prohibit the purchase, sale and possession of firearms and  ammunition are also unconstitutional because they forbid the exercise of  Second Amendment rights as affirmed by Monday&#8217;s Supreme Court ruling in  McDonald v. City of Chicago.<\/p>\n<p>As a sidebar, Monday&#8217;s decision by the Supreme Court did not GRANT a  right- it affirmed the existing right. &#8220;Rights&#8221; are not granted by  anyone &#8211; neither, the Supreme Court affirmed, may governments- federal,  state nor local, rescind a &#8220;right&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Through this lawsuit in North Carolina,&#8221; says Gottlieb,&#8221; we intend to  show that state emergency powers statutes that allow government  officials to suspend fundamental civil rights, including the right to  bear arms, are unconstitutional and therefore should be nullified.  Citizens do not surrender their civil rights just because of a natural  or man-made disaster.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Once again, the highest-profile legal point man on the case will be Alan  Gura, the same attorney who has now successfully argued both landmark  Second Amendment cases before the high court. Local counsel are Andrew  Tripp and Kearns Davis with the firm of Brooks, Pierce, McLendon,  Humphrey &amp; Leonard, LLC in Raleigh.<\/p>\n<p>This lawsuit is likely the first filed following the landmark decision  that overturned Chicago&#8217;s decades-old gun ban, but it is definitely the  last. Yesterday, I was told by involved parties that a series of  lawsuits challenging &#8211; among others- California&#8217;s myriad gun regulations  are on the way. Similarly, other areas can expect gun rights advocates  on the local and national level, to move forward with their own  challenges.<\/p>\n<p>The affirmation of the Second Amendment&#8217;s applicability to the states  establishes the basis by which anti-gun regulations may be challenged,  regardless of the size of the government unit. With the restriction  still in place for sensitive locations &#8211; government buildings, schools  and such &#8211; very few defenses remain in place for blanket regulations.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8212; Jim Shepherd<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.shootingwire.com\" target=\"_blank\">www.shootingwire.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation tells me something is a &#8220;call to action&#8221; in the future, I&#8217;m going to go ahead and get on my feet. He&#8217;s marching, and everyone with him had better be ready to move. On Monday, the SAF filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,266,354,5],"tags":[755,756],"class_list":["post-4293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-shepherd","category-mcdonald-v-city-of-chicago-news","category-second-amendment","tag-alan-gottlieb","tag-second-amendment-foundation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.downrange.tv\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}