Gu€¦ · Good News from Around the Nation Because the COVID-19 pandemic and massive rioting have...

by Alan M. RiceDespite claims to the contrary

by some firearms advocates, NICS hasnot been fixed. It is badly broken, andinstead of “fixing” it, we should have aserious discussion about repealing thissignificant infringement on the right tokeep and bear arms.

In 1993 when Congress was debatingwhat would become the Brady Law,GOA predicted that people who canlawfully purchase a gun would, atworst, be denied that right, and at best,have the right delayed — because con-trary to the claims of politicians on both

sides of the aisle, instant checks areNOT instant. Hence, GOA has consis-tently opposed NICS and every singlemisguided attempt to “FIX NICS,”which is badly broken and needs to bescrapped, not “fixed.”

I was recently contacted by Mr. JimMcLoud who is the owner of ShootersOutpost in Hooksett, NH about thelengthy NICS delays and the problemsthey are causing for his business. Mr.McLoud told me that he has over$100,000 in handguns that have beensold but cannot be handed over to the

Gun OwnersTHE

44 YEARS OF NO COMPROMISE – 1976-2020

by Erich PrattGun owners know that their rights have come under tremen-

dous attack this year. All around the country, many governors and mayors tried to

shut down gun stores and gun ranges in the name of keepingpeople safe from a virus. Of course, these same politiciansseemed to have no problem with rioters and looters, arguingthat they need to be given “their space.”

But in the face of these attacks upon our security, Ameri-cans are buying guns at a record pace. And Gun Owners ofAmerica has been fighting back to curtail the spread of the guncontrol virus across the country.

GOA has worked with various local groups to sue in courtand to get gun stores and ranges reopened. And we have per-suaded sheriffs to resume the process of issuing concealedcarry permits.

The GOA legal team has active cases in courtrooms fromfrom coast to coast:

• Universal Background Checks. In Virginia, Gun Own-ers of America won a historic victory in a lawsuit chal-lenging one of the newly-enacted gun control laws in thestate. (More on this in the box to the right.)

Volume XL, Number 3 • August 14, 2020

• New Gun Owners WillChange the Political Landscape (page 3)

• GOA on the Frontlines (page 4-5)

• The Supreme Court Fiddles While the SecondAmendment Burns (page 8)

Inside:

Continued on page 6

Continued on page 2

Delaying and Denying Your Right to Keep and Bear Arms

GOA Activists Making a Huge DifferenceAcross the Country

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam recently enacted several guncontrol laws, including Universal Background Checks(UBCs). But after Gun Owners of America and the VirginiaCitizens Defense League challenged UBCs in the courts, ajudge issued a temporary injunction to prevent the law frombeing applied to young adults. This was unprecedented inVirginia, and it marked the first time a judge has imposed a temporary injunction upon an act that was passed by theGeneral Assembly. GOA looks forward to having this lawfully overturned in the courts.

GOA Achieves HistoricDecision in Virginia

NICS:

The Gun Owners is published by Gun Owners of America, Inc. 8001 Forbes Place, Suite 202, Springfield, VA 22151 (703) 321-8585 www.gunowners.org

August 14, 2020 • The Gun Owners /

• Regulatory Overreach. GOA has brought suit againstthe ATF in federal court in Michigan and Alabama. Inboth cases, GOA is suing the bureau for illegitimatelypreventing each state from allowing gun owners to usetheir concealed carry permits as exemptions to the NICSbackground check.

• Gun bans and waiting periods. GOA will soon be filingsuit in state court in Washington to challenge the recent-ly enacted Initiative 1639, which contained a slew ofanti-gun provisions approved by voters during theNovember 2018 election. This suit will challenge variousspecific provisions of I-1639 as violating Article I, Sec-tion 24 of the state constitution protecting the right tokeep and bear arms. And we are seeking a court orderthat I-1639 is void and unenforceable.

For each of these victories and challenges mentioned above,GOA members have played a huge role through activism andfinancial support.

Good News from Around the NationBecause the COVID-19 pandemic and massive rioting have

grabbed headlines for most of the year, there are many positivenews stories that the mainstream media is simply not reporting.Here are some of the key victories from around the nation thatreaders may have missed.1) Stopping Red Flag Laws. In May, Oklahoma enacted

the first-in-the-nation law to prohibit funds for “Red Flag” leg-islation. This GOA-backed law effectively bans gun confisca-tion orders at any level of government.2) Ending lawless gun bans during emergencies. In June,

grassroots gun owners in Louisiana helped push four pro-gunbills into law, including a ban on future gun bans. This victory,in large part, was realized because of the work of GOAactivists. (See p. 4.)3) Regaining lost freedoms in the courts. In July, a Vir-

ginia judge ruled on a GOA-sponsored case and issued astatewide injunction preventing Universal Background Checks(UBCs) from being applied to 18-20-year-olds.

This was a historic triumph. According to statements madein court by the Solicitor General, no court has ever beforeissued a temporary injunction to invalidate an act from the General Assembly — that is, until the mini-victory in this lawsuit whichwas brought byGun Owners ofAmerica and theVirginia CitizensDefense League.

The bigger law-suit continues asboth organizations,are fighting to see

the entire UBC law struck down. Read more about this case at:gunowners.org/na071520204) The pool of gun-owning voters is growing. Americans

right now are setting all-time records with regard to gun sales.And many reports indicate that the spike in gun purchasers isfrom people who are buying their first gun — some estimatesputting the number at 40 percent of the overall number of gunsales.

There’s already some evidence that gun rights will be a bigissue for the first-time gun owners in the upcoming election.Gun dealers report that these new gun buyers, who are scaredby the deterioration of society, are now outraged by the gunrestrictions which they formerly supported.

And The Washington Free Beacon reports that many firsttime buyers who “generally leaned toward enhanced restric-tions [now] find themselves more skeptical of gun control.”

One former gun control proponent in California finallydecided it was time to buy a gun to protect his family. But hehad to wait over a month before he could finally purchase andpick up his weapon.

This journey has finally helped him to see the light. Hecommented that — during the time it took him to get his gun— bad guys in the area would have been able to buy their ille-gal guns “out of the back of an El Camino in a shady part oftown with zero background checks.”

He now owns the very AR-15 which he used to think shouldonly be available to military and police. And he’s consideringrunning for office — a new believer in the right to keep andbear arms. He’s not alone.

While the above stories are anecdotal, it is possible that apro-gun tidal wave could be cresting. When Staunton, Virginiaheld elections for city council in May, voters defeated everyDemocrat office holder who was running for reelection. Thiswas stunning, given that the city of Staunton had twice votedfor Obama ... voted for Hillary ... and for the current Democratgovernor.

But Virginia has been a hotbed for gun control this year, and voters are rebelling. This was not lost on the media which reported that “gun control legislation” was a key issue in the transformational election. The election resultsshocked the political intelligentsia — one of whom noted that what happened in Staunton was “stunning almost beyondwords.”

Time will tell what will actually happen across the country.But if a conservative is a “liberal who got mugged,” there maybe a lot more pro-gun conservatives turning out on ElectionDay this November. ■

GOA Activists Making a Huge DifferenceAcross the CountryContinued from page 1

Call GOA at 703-321-8585 for more information gunowners.org/legacy

Tax ID# 52-1256643



by Rachel MaloneGun sales are at an all-time high —

and it’s no wonder, considering currentevents.

Americans have always known thatour gun ownership keeps us protected.Years ago, Admiral Yamamoto of Japanpurportedly said that the reason Japancould not invade the United States main-land during WWII is that “there wouldbe a rifle behind each blade of grass.”He was referring to the mass of armedcitizens who stood ready to protect theircountry and their freedoms.

Whether or not the admiral actuallysaid this, the phrase does represent thelogical understanding that it’s not safe toinvade a group of well-armed people.

It’s the same philosophy as shownin much of our American heritage,including the Gadsden flag. “Don’tTread On Me” with a coiled rat-tlesnake shows that it’s not wise to tyr-annize people who could fight back.

Lately, Americans have shown astrong interest in staying well-armed: wehave been purchasing guns in evengreater quantities. Firearms purchasesreached an all-time high in June. Weknow this from FBI data on backgroundchecks released monthly since Novem-ber 1998.

Federal law requires that a gun dealer(someone with a Federal FirearmsLicense, or an FFL) must run a back-ground check on a prospective gunbuyer before transferring thefirearm. These background checks arerun through the National Instant Crimi-nal Background Check System (NICS)and are also called NICS checks. TheseNICS checks are what the FBI reportsmonthly.

The monthly number of NICS back-ground checks doesn’t give an exactcount of firearms purchased. In statessuch as Texas, which don’t requirea NICS check on private gun sales or ifthe buyer shows a state-issued Licenseto Carry, the count won’t include theguns that are legally bought using thosemethods. Also, if someone purchasesmultiple guns from the same dealer, thedealer may only run one NICS check.

And sometimes NICS checks arerun even when someone doesn’t pur-chase a gun.

Still, the number of backgroundchecks run through NICS does give astrong indication of a rise or fall in gunpurchases. And throughout 2020, NICSchecks have been higher than they’vebeen since the FBI started recordingthem over 20 years ago.

During the month of June 2020, theFBI reported over 3.9 million NICSchecks. In contrast, the FBI reportedonly 2.3 million checks in June 2019and 1.9 million in each of the previoustwo Junes (2018 and 2017). In fact, thisyear is the first time the checks havereached 3 million. NICS checks trendupward each year, but this year’s spikehas been extraordinary.

Many gun stores report that thisinflux of gun purchasers is largely frompeople who are purchasing their firstgun.

In other words, they’re regular Amer-icans — soccer moms, store clerks,businesspeople, blue collar workers, col-lege students, grandparents — who havesuddenly realized that they’re vulnerableand they don’t trust the government oranyone else to keep them safe. They areconvinced that a gun is a tool that canhelp them stay safe, and they believethis strongly enough to invest in theirown first firearm.

If this new segment of gun ownerswould take a stand to protect our gunrights, the political landscape couldchange.

Assuming the new gun owners havenot previously been politically active, orthat they have not voted in favor of gunrights, they wield incredible politicalpower as a voting bloc. They can be thetipping point to elect new slates of can-didates who will stand up for ourright to keep and bear arms. And theycan provide the rush of public opinionneeded to pressure squishy politicians tostop infringing on our rights.

Unfortunately, a NICS checkis itself an inherent infringement onyour right to keep and bear arms.

It assumes you are guilty until proven

innocent: you’re unable to purchase agun from a gun shop until you can passthe litmus test and show your worthi-ness. The system was implemented pur-portedly to stop crime but fails miser-ably at that goal. Instead, it malfunctionsso often that it is more likely to hinderhonest, law-abiding citizens from pur-chasing a gun.

Perhaps the only usefulness of theNICS system is that it shows that Amer-icans are very interested in gun owner-ship.

Criminals, beware: the people ofAmerica are arming themselves and yourisk your life if you try to come afterthem, their homes, or their families.

The American governmentshould also take notice: its people arearmed, and it must not tread on us. ■

Rachel Malone is the Texas Directorfor Gun Owners of America. This articleran in the Houston Courant on July 11,2020.

GOA’s Texas Director Rachel Malonespoke at the Constitutional FreedomsRally in Greenville, Texas in June. Malonegave the 300 attendees valuable insight onhow they can mobilize to protect the rightto keep and bear arms.

DON’T TREAD ON ME:

New Gun Owners Will Change the Political Landscape



Louisiana Protects the 2A During Times of EmergencyIn June, grassroots gun owners in Louisiana helped push four pro-gun bills into law, including a ban onfuture gun bans. These laws will strengthen Louisiana’s firearm preemption law, eliminate some of the bur-densome requirements to carry a concealed handgun in a place of worship, allow Constitutional Carry of aconcealed firearm during a mandatory evacuation in a state of emergency; and remove the authorityof a chief law enforcement officer to ban or regulate firearms or ammunition during an emergency or disas-ter. The latter legislation was introduced and pushed into law specifically because of the activism of GOA sup-porters. Rep. Blake Miguez (R), pictured here, is a former world champion shooter and contestant on HistoryChannel’s Top Shot. Rep. Miguez introduced the bill in response to appeals from GOA members who wereupset about executive officers, such as New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell, who were claiming the authorityto limit or prohibit the sale of firearms during the declared emergency this year. So kudos to the activism ofGOA supporters — and for legislators like Rep. Miguez (Dist. 49) who listen to their constituents!

Fighting for Freedom in the Bay State

In times of uncertainly, the lastplace that should be closed forbusiness is a gun store or range.That’s why GOA fought to reopengun stores and ranges around thecountry, including Massachusetts.Despite federal guidance designat-ing the firearms industry as essen-

tial, the Bay State’s Attorney General Maura Healey forced GovernorCharles Baker to mandate the closure of gun stores and ranges with-in the state. But GOA partnered with several other plaintiffs and pro-gun attorney Andrew Couture (pictured right) to reopen these Sec-ond Amendment-protected businesses. Couture is joined by GOA’sAlan Rice (left) and Jared of Guns & Gadgets (center) at the Massa-chusetts Flag Day 2A Rally in June.

New Gun Owners Must Get to the Ballot Box to Protect the Cartridge Box GOA’s Antonia Okafor joined Fox and Friends First to discuss therapid rise in new gun owners and GOA’s efforts in converting theminto pro-gun voters. New gun owners must realize that presidentialcandidate Joe Biden seeks to eradicate the Second Amendment withthe help of Robert “Take Your AR-15” O’Rourke as Gun Czar. Gunowners, new and old, must get to the polls to vote for no compro-mise candidates — up and down the ballot — to stand in the gapagainst the gun controllers. Antonia’s Fox and Friends First interviewcan be viewed here: gunowners.me/ballotbox (case sensitive)

Making the Argument for the Second Amendment

GOA’s Erich Pratt joined Nick Freitas, a GOA-backedCongressional Candidate (VA-07), on his podcast,Making the Argument. Pratt and Freitas discussedwhy the everyday gun owner must get involved toprotect the right to keep and bear arms and how todo that effectively. The podcast can be viewed here:gunowners.me/MakingTheArgument (case sensitive)

Gun Owners of Am

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Powerful Voices for the Second AmendmentGun owners may remember Mark Robinson's “I AM THEMAJORTY” video that went viral two years ago. In his impas-sioned speech, Robinson was protesting gun control in Greens-boro, NC. Since then, he has become one of the most powerfulvoices for the Second Amendment, even running for LieutenantGovernor of North Carolina and earning GOA’s endorsement. Heis pictured here with GOA’s Erich Pratt (right) at a pro-gunevent, where they both spoke.

merica on the FrontlinesSecond Amendment Ladies Show the WayGOA’s Texas Director Rachel Malone (right) satdown with three Gun Owner’s Choice candidatesrunning for state representative in Texas. CarrieIsaac (left), Shelby Slawson (left middle), and Jen-nifer Fleck (right middle) discuss their races and thefight to pass Constitutional Carry and repeal "gun-free" zones. The video can be viewed at: gunown-ers.me/TX2ALadies (case sensitive). Around thecountry, GOA is involved in several key races at thefederal and state levels — including, but not limitedto, Montana, Kentucky, Kansas and Georgia.

Running to Give Anti-Gunners the Boot Out of OfficeGOA is working around the country to give anti-gunners the political“boot” from office. One pro-gunner who is fighting to oust an anti-gunincumbent is Danny DeVito (pictured left) with GOA’s Val Finnell. DeVito,who is a strong supporter of the right to keep and bear arms, is chal-lenging an “F” rated state representative in Pennsylvania’s 45th District.

The Second Amendment is for EveryoneGOA’s Antonia Okafor hosted a panel in Orlando,Florida, to discuss how the Second Amendment isfor everyone. Among other subjects, the panel dis-cussed the significance of the right to keep andbear arms for them personally. Notably, HankStrange said, “Guns are a gateway drug to free-dom.” Pictured left to right is Rhonda Mary, EdgarAntillon, Maj Toure, Devin Perkins, Antonia Okafor,Spike Cohen, Alicia Garcia, and Hank Strange.

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buyers because of delays in the “instantcheck” — delays that are averagingabout a hundred transactions per week.

Some may think that he should justhand over the gun to the buyer at theend of three business days — becausethat is what the law says. That would bereasonable if Mr. McLoud’s businesswas located in a state where the FBIhandles NICS and the majority ofchecks are processed within a few min-utes and very few are delayed. Howev-er, Shooters Outpost is in New Hamp-shire and the New Hampshire StatePolice (NHSP) are the “point of con-tact” for NICS checks for handgunssold by licensed dealers in that state.

Here’s how it all works: ShootersOutpost (or any other dealer) contactsthe “Gun Line” and one of two thingshappens. Either they are told “we willcall you back,” then at some later time,the dealer is asked for the customer’sinformation (name, date of birth, etc.)Or NHSP takes the buyer’s informationon the initial call and just says “we willcall you back.”

The sad truth is the New Hampshire“Gun Line” has always been operatedin this grossly inefficient manner. Whengun sales are not hitting record-highvolumes, the call back comes anywherefrom 15 minutes to a few hours. How-ever, during busy times, the hours turninto days and in the wake of theCOVID-19 pandemic, the days are turn-ing into weeks. This is far from instant,and completely unacceptable.

Even though New Hampshire lawdoes not include a waiting period forgun buyers — legislation that wouldhave enacted one was recently defeated— a waiting period is in fact beingforced upon gun buyers due to bureau-cratic delays.

The reason that dealers like Mr.McLoud are reluctant to transfer thegun at the end of three business days isbecause delays exceeding three days arenow the norm instead of the exceptionand as the numbers increase the likeli-hood of a “delayed denial” increases.When this happens, NHSP asks thedealer to attempt to retrieve the hand-gun. A dealer then has a used gun on

his hands and many customers expect afull refund. From the point of view ofboth retailer and purchaser, this is anightmare scenario.

I contacted the NHSP to find outwhy there are such long delays whenthe FBI is able to issue an approval,denial, or delay in less than five min-utes. I was told that from January 1,2020 through early June, NHSPprocessed about 40,000 checks, whilefor the full year in, 2019, theyprocessed 59,000. They claim a 36%increase in gun sales but have notreceived anywhere near a 36% increasein staff. I was also told that NHSP hasdenied about 500 attempted purchasesin 2020. NHSP claims known felons areattempting to buy guns, but we are notconvinced that felons represent any-thing other than a tiny percentage (ifany) of this number; because the historyof NICS has shown that close to 95% ofNICS denials are false positives.

To get further clarity, and possibly adifferent perspective, I spoke with JayE. Simkin, who has held an FFL since1983 and is an international economist.Jay told me:

Background checks are a consumerfraud: The Federal authorities basi-

cally do not prosecute those who,being prohibited, seek to acquirefirearms from a Federally-licenseddealer. Such an attempt to acquireis a Federal felony. Most states(including New Hampshire) do notprosecute those properly denied.

Simkin also said that:

With some 411,000,000 firearms inthe U.S. (military items excluded) aperson properly denied will get afirearm, just not from a licenseddealer in firearms.

He went on to explain that:

A broad-based study by the U.S.Government Accountability Office(GAO), found that: “In fiscal 2017,the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,Firearms, and Explosives referredabout 12,700 denied purchases toits field divisions for investigation.As of June 2018, U.S. Attorney’sOffices prosecuted 12 of thesecases.” And the states are not doingany better, at the state level, offi-cials from 10 of 13 selected statessaid they did not investigate orprosecute firearm(s) denials, someciting competing resource demandsand the lack of statutes with whichstates prosecute as reasons.

Gun sales spike after COVID-19 and riots

It is long-settled caselaw that a pri-vate citizen cannot sue the police forfailure to provide protection services.Firearms are the great equalizer — butonly if people can get them. Due to thewidespread problems with NICS, it hasbecome difficult for many would-begun owners to become actual gun own-ers. And the problem is even worse instates which require a government-issued permit or license before a personcan purchase a gun or ammunition.

GOA has opposed NICS since itsinception. And now that gun buyers areseeing firsthand that what we predictedwould happen is actually happening —that is, they can’t obtain a self-defensefirearm in a timely fashion — the timeis right to start talking to state legisla-tors and Members of Congress about afull repeal of NICS infringements. ■

Alan M. Rice is a Firearms Instructor andis the New Hampshire State Director forGOA. A version of this article ran inAmmoland.com on June 30, 2020.

NICS: Delaying and Denying Your Right toKeep and Bear ArmsContinued from page 1

Decades of Fightingfor the Right to

Keep and Bear Arms

Alan Rice is a firearms instructorand the New Hampshire StateDirector for GOA. He has beenactive in the Second Amendmentcommunity for over 30 years, andhe has volunteered for GOA forover 20 years. He is also a co-authorof the book, Lethal Laws: Gun Con-trol is the Key to Genocide.



upheld Obamacare) or Justice Gorsuch (who rewrote the 1964Civil Rights Act) to again side with the solid anti-gun Democ-ratic bloc on the Court, the pro-gun justices would continue tobide their time.

Supreme Court inaction is certainly not the worst thing thatcould happen. President Trump’s appointments to the lowerfederal courts are turning some of the twelve federal circuitsfrom anti-gun to pro-gun, and every month that passes, theturnover in lower court judges improves gun rights. And it cer-tainly is true that a bad Second Amendment decision would beworse than inaction, as it would undermine — not strengthen— the power of the Supreme Court’s most recent guidancein Heller and McDonald.

One of the reasons that we thought that the Heller andMcDonald decisions were landmarks is not just because theSupreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment protected anindividual right, and that the Second Amendment applied to thestates, but also because those decisions set out the method bywhich future gun cases were to be decided. This methodologyissue is the critical issue facing us now.

Before Heller, the Second Amendment was the most signifi-cant constitutional provision without a long line of SupremeCourt cases trying to explain its meaning. The justices knewthat in Heller, they had the first case of any sort where theywere unconstrained by precedent, giving them a historic oppor-tunity to get it right.

The amicus brief filed by Gun Owners of America tookadvantage of the moment, rejecting the application of common-ly used “interest balancing” tests. We stated: “According toits text, context, and historic setting, the Second Amendmentprotects an individual right to private possession and use ofhandguns in one’s own home.” We argued, simply, that,“[w]hether the right to keep and bear arms is violated, then,must turn on whether the particular firearm regulations‘infringes’ either the class of persons who, by nature, constitutethe ‘people’ or the class of ‘arms’ appropriate to a ‘well regu-lated militia’.”

Justice Scalia’s opinion for the Court in Heller rejected theapplication of First Amendment jurisprudence to the SecondAmendment.

However, others briefing the case fell back on what wasfamiliar to them and argued Heller as though it were a FirstAmendment case, employing judge-made standards of reviewbased on classifying rights as “fundamental” or not, “interestbalancing,” and standards of review such as “strict scrutiny,”“intermediate scrutiny,” and “rational basis” analysis.

These other lawyers did not see the danger in arguing FirstAmendment tests should be applied in the Second Amendmentarena. But, there is a fundamental difference. With the FirstAmendment, the government’s interests are often not substan-tial. However, with guns, the courts must weigh the govern-ment’s interest in public safety against the people’s right to armthemselves — a construct where public safety almost alwayswins.

Chief Justice Roberts rejected the use of First Amendmentbalancing tests during oral argument in Heller.

And consistent with Justice Robert’s observations, JusticeScalia’s opinion for the Court in Heller rejected the applicationof First Amendment jurisprudence to the Second Amendment.“There seems to us no doubt, on the basis of both text and history, that the Second Amendment conferred an individualright to keep and bear arms.” He rejected what he called“judge-empowering” interest balancing, as the Second Amend-ment itself “is the very product of an interest-balancing by the people.”

The McDonald decision followed the Heller model.In McDonald, even dissenting Justice Breyer recognizedthat Heller had rejected interest balancing in deciding SecondAmendment cases.

But after giving gun owners huge victories in Heller andMcDonald, the Supreme Court has gone silent for a decadewhile the lower courts have used Justice Breyer’s “interest bal-ancing” to give victory after victory to anti-gun state and localgovernment lawyers. These lower court judges have tried toreduce the Heller victory to its facts — that no governmententity can enact a complete ban on a handgun in the home —and nothing else.

As President Trump alters the composition of the lower fed-eral courts, the trend is moving in the right direction, but howand why was the momentum lost after Heller and McDonald?That is the subject of Part II in this series of articles. And, inPart III, we will suggest a path forward to change our strategiesin order to achieve victory in the Courts. ■

This article first ran in The Truth About Guns on June 18, 2020. Part 2 of this article can be read here — gunowners.me/part2 — and Part 3 can be read here — gunowners.me/part3 (links are case sensitive).

The Supreme Court Fiddles While the Second Amendment BurnsContinued from page 8

Shop with those who support GOA’sNo-Compromise Mission.

Visit gunowners.org/partners

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Gun OwnersTHE

Tim MacyPresident

John VellecoExecutive Vice President

Erich PrattSenior Vice President

The Gun Owners publication is copyrighted. Butcopies may be made freely with attribution, givingGOA’s address, phone number and web site location.

by John VellecoFor the last decade, the United

States Supreme Court has abdi-cated its constitutional duty toresolve “cases and controversies”

involving the Second Amendment. It has run from its his-toric duty, as articulated by Chief Justice John Marshall, “tosay what the law is.”

The High Court has stood on the sideline while the lowerfederal courts have allowed government at all levels toinfringe the People’s right to keep and bear arms. It haswatched silently while its seminal Second Amendment deci-sions in District of Columbia v. Heller (2008) and McDon-ald v. Chicago (2010) have been undermined by anti-gundistrict and circuit court judges. The Supreme Court’sneglect of its historic duty to protectthe Second Amendment-protectedrights of Americans has been noth-ing less than shameful. But in thelast few weeks, it has gotten muchworse.

On April 27, 2020, in New YorkRifle & Pistol v. New York City,Chief Justice Roberts joined theanti-gun, Democrat-appointed Jus-tices on the Court to declare thatNew York politicians could manipu-late the judiciary by enacting anti-gun laws, and then repealing them after years of litigation— just before it appeared they would be struck down byfederal courts. Gun owners were shocked that the SupremeCourt could declare the years-long litigation “moot” wheneveryone knew that New York was playing games with theCourt, but the Chief Justice did not seem to have the will touse that opportunity to defend the Second Amendment.

But there was still hope. After all, there still were 10pending petitions for certiorari in the U.S. Supreme Court.No doubt at least one of those cases would be a good vehi-cle for the pro-gun justices to re-affirm Justice Scalia’s deci-sion in Heller and Justice Alito’s opinion in McDonald. But

then, on one notable day, June 15, 2020, the Supreme Courtdenied certiorari review in all 10 pending petitions.

Could it be true that not one of these cases provided agood fact pattern to issue a helpful decision? Doubtful.

The Upside of Supreme Court InactionJustice Thomas wrote a stunning dissent in one of those

cases, Rogers v. Grewal, calling out the Court for abandon-ing the Second Amendment. Justice Kavanaugh joined inthe portion of the Thomas dissent that addressed the need of the Court to weigh back in on the Second Amendment.Justice Alito wrote the McDonald decision, and with hisdemonstrated support for the Second Amendment, itappears we have three pro-gun justices. Where are the rest?

As of today, there is only one gun case of note now pend-ing on certiorari — Rodriguez v. Cityof San Jose, where GOA filed theonly amicus brief supporting the peti-tion on May 20, 2020. The SupremeCourt ordered San Jose to file a replyto the petition — always a good sign— and we hope for the best, but thereis no guarantee that Rodriguez will notgo the way of the other 10 petitions.On June 17, 2020, the City of San Josefiled its opposition brief, and althoughSan Jose took the unusual step of with-holding consent to the filing of

GOA’s amicus brief, San Jose addressed several of the arguments raised by our brief, referring to us as “proposedamici.”

The most likely reason that the High Court rejected all 10cases was that there was one (or more) anti-gun Justice(s)among the five Republican-appointed judges on that Courtwho could not be trusted. (Who might that be?) If so, itwould be better to wait for President Trump to get re-elect-ed, and have one more Justice appointed to replace a Demo-crat, to assemble a majority of five pro-gun votes among sixGOP justices. Rather than allow Chief Justice Roberts (who

An Abdication of Duty

Michael HammondLegislative Counsel

Jordan SteinDirector of Communications

Aidan JohnstonDirector of Federal Affairs

Matthew PattersonDirector of State and Local Affairs

Antonia OkaforDirector of Outreach

Continued on page 7

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