Dave Workman

A Washington State appeals court panel ruled unanimously that a so-called “safe storage” mandate in the City of Edmonds is illegal under the state’s 36-year-old preemption statute. It’s a victory for SAF and NRA. HK P30sk Chained Gun Locked Pistol IMG: Dave Workman
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- A three-judge panel for the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division 1 has ruled unanimously that a so-called “safe storage” mandate adopted by the City of Edmonds violates the state’s 36-year-old preemption statute, in a lawsuit filed by the Second Amendment Foundation and National Rifle Association.

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb called the win a “significant victory for Evergreen State gun and privacy rights.” The case is known as Bass v. City of Edmonds and the ruling may be read here.

“Today’s ruling is an important victory for the people of Washington,” said Lars Dalseide, NRA Washington state spokesman. “Hopefully jurisdictions like Edmonds will realize that violating the Washington State Constitution is neither legal nor in the best interest of personal protection.”

The unanimous 16-page ruling was authored by Acting Chief Judge Beth Andrus, with Judges Bill Bowman and Lori Kay Smith concurring. It strongly upholds Washington’s preemption statute, first adopted in 1983 and strengthened in 1985. This law has been used as a model for similar preemption laws in other states. According to the anti-gun Giffords Law Center, more than 40 states have preemption laws.

Alan Gottlieb

“Washington lawmakers wisely adopted state preemption more than 35 years ago, Gottlieb observed. “The language is clear and unambiguous. Local governments cannot adopt or enforce their own firearms regulations that are more restrictive than state statute. The City of Edmonds knew this when the council adopted the storage requirement.”

His observation squares with what Acting Chief Judge Andrus stated in the ruling:

“We…conclude that the legislature’s express preemption of ‘the entire field of firearms regulation’ is unambiguous and necessarily extends to regulations of the storage of firearms.”

Edmonds adopted the ordinance after the City of Seattle passed an almost identical mandate, apparently emboldened by an earlier victory in a legal challenge to their gun and ammunition tax, which last year brought in revenue of $184,836, the highest total in the six-year history of the tax, but far short of original revenue forecasts.
Former Seattle Councilman Tim Burgess championed the tax, declaring in mid-2015 it would bring in an estimated $300,000 to $500,000 annually but it has never come close. The tax was supposed to fund efforts to reduce so-called “gun violence,” and in that regard, it has been a complete failure.
In 2016, the tax brought in $103,766, the same year Seattle reported 18 homicides. In 2017, the tax revenue dropped to $93,220, and there were 28 slayings in the city. The following year, Seattle’s tax pulled in a dismal $77,518 and police logged 32 murders. Then in 2019, the gun tax revenue went up to $85,352 and there were 28 killings.
Last year, the tax brought in $184,836, but Seattle’s body count soared to 52, according to Seattle Police Department data.
So far, no Seattle official has acknowledged the gun tax failure. The 2020 murder count—not all of which involved firearms—was the highest number of killings in many years.
SAF and NRA are suing Seattle over the storage requirement, and the same appeals court last year allowed that lawsuit to move forward. The Edmonds ruling sends a pretty clear signal Seattle has overstepped its authority.

“Let’s be clear about something,” Gottlieb emphasized in a prepared statement. “Edmonds didn’t adopt this safe storage mandate in the interest of safety, but rather to challenge and erode, if not irreparably dismantle the state preemption law. The city has no business dictating to citizens how they should store firearms in their own homes.”

Gottlieb has a point. How can such a mandate be enforced? Some years ago, when a state lawmaker proposed legislation that included unannounced visits by police to the homes of gun owners to determine whether firearms were being safely stored, a columnist for the typically anti-gun Seattle Times took the idea to the task. At the time Gottlieb observed, “This is the United States, not a police state.”

Evergreen State gun prohibitionists are not happy with the Edmonds ruling. Gottlieb rubbed a little salt in their wounds noting, “State preemption is the most common-sense approach to firearms regulation there is. It provides uniformity on gun laws from one state border to the other. Whether you live in Edmonds or Ephrata, the gun laws are the same.”
Still, the Everett Herald quoted Edmonds Councilwoman Adrienne Fraley-Monillas offering a familiar emotional argument, “Any time you lose in court it is a disappointment. If this ordinance may have saved a child’s life because a parent locked away a gun it is worth it.”
State legislators from Seattle have been attempting for several years to unravel state preemption, but they’ve repeatedly failed.

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

NRA EVP Wayne LaPierre appeared on Grant Stinchfield’s Newsmax broadcast. (Screen snip, YouTube, Newsmax)
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Insisting the National Rifle Association is “strong financially,” embattled Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre told Newsmax talk host Grant Stinchfield in a televised interview the organization is growing by “about 1,000 (members) a day” and intimated that the current legal and financial troubles are politically motivated and not just about him.

“So much of this is about the hatred of some politicians toward our constitutional freedoms and the organization,” LaPierre said during a 6 ½-minute interview, “the Number One organization that defends it, the National Rifle Association, and all we are people all over the country that believe in their freedom.”

Stinchfield, an award-winning broadcast journalist who was a lead reporter for NRA TV, opened the interview by asking LaPierre if NRA is “still in a position to be successful.”

“Is the NRA as strong as it’s ever been,” he inquired.

LaPierre responded by ticking off a list of achievements NRA has racked up over the years.
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“Y’know this organization has had an historical record of achievement,” he said. “Right to carry in 41 states. We saved the American firearms industry from certain bankruptcy by these predatory lawsuits. Emergency power bills where they can’t come into your house and confiscate your firearms and leave you defenseless in a time of emergency.
“And then those historic Heller and McDonald decisions that said the Second Amendment is your individual right,” he added. “It’s not about the government’s right.”

While the NRA submitted a brief supporting Heller, it was not the association’s case, however. And, while NRA had a companion case challenging the Chicago gun ban, McDonald v. City of Chicago was actually a Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) case. Both McDonald and NRA’s cases were argued at the same time before the U.S. Supreme Court, allowing both organizations to claim victory when the high court nullified Chicago’s gun law.
LaPierre recalled to viewers that early in 2018, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Financial Services “went after every bank and insurance company doing business in New York State, and that’s the most powerful financial center in the country, and said ‘Hey, if you do business with the NRA, we’re going to punish you; there will be retribution. You’ll pay a price.’ I mean, the awesome power of the state.

“And then.,” LaPierre continued, “his hand-picked candidate for Attorney General, Letitia James, before she ever (served) a day in office, during her campaign said that because the NRA supported the Second Amendment, she considered (us) a terrorist criminal organization and when she won she was going to open up an investigation.”

Last August, James filed a lawsuit against the organization, seeking to dissolve it. The lawsuit alleges LaPierre “exploited the organization for his financial benefit, and the benefit of a close circle of NRA staff, board members and vendors.”
NRA counter-sued James, getting support from several states’ attorneys general. As reported by the Washington Post, their brief stated, “The New York Attorney General cannot be allowed to wield the power of her office to discriminate against the NRA simply because she does not like its members’ political views, advocacy or defense of a constitutional right.”
NRA also sued Gov. Cuomo and Maria Vullo, superintendent of the New York Department of Financial Services, and the agency. Even the ACLU sided with NRA in a brief to the court. This lawsuit alleges that Cuomo, Vullo and the DFS had mounted a “campaign to chill the political speech of the NRA and other so-called ‘gun promotion’ organizations by leveraging state power to punish financial institutions which maintain business arrangements with the NRA.”
NRA recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a move to pull out of New York State and restructure in Texas.
More than once, Stinchfield accused NRA’s opponents of “weaponizing” government to take down the 150-year-old NRA, which was founded and incorporated in 1871, in New York State.
In reaction to the suggestion, LaPierre observed, “This is a constitutional fight. It’s bigger than the NRA. It’s for all Americans because if they can do it to the NRA today, they can do it to any organization on the right or left tomorrow.”

When Stinchfield noted the past two-plus years have been “tough,” LaPierre responded, “Well, y’know it’s not really me. This is about all Americans. This is a question of whether we’re going to live in a country where, and I really mean it, where if you have a different political point of view than the politicians that control the government at any given time. Whether those politicians can use their power to silence and destroy you.

“It’s about whether we have constitutional freedom like the right to keep and bear arms to protect yourself and your family if the glass breaks at 2 a.m.,” he continued. “I mean that’s what this fight’s about. That’s what NRA does every day. That’s what the people around the country want this organization to do and what I love about it is that NRA stands on principle and fight(s).
“It’s not here to be popular in this town It’s here to represent people all over the country who want their freedoms defended,” he said.

While some 33,000 people joined NRA last month, according to LaPierre, gun owners are also reportedly throwing considerable support to SAF, which has become a legal powerhouse in the Second Amendment litigation arena. That group, based in Bellevue, Washington, has filed dozens of lawsuits challenging state and local gun control laws in the aftermath of the McDonald ruling, which incorporated the Second Amendment to the states via the 14th Amendment in June 2010.
SAF, as Ammoland News has reported, is now entering its seventh week of advertising and promoting a grassroots effort called “2nd Amendment First Responders.” According to SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, SAF has attracted tens of thousands of new members and supporters with the “First Responders” campaign. About 25 percent of these new “recruits” were first-time gun buyers in 2020 and roughly 40 percent of those supporters are women.

“It’s important to remember,” Gottlieb recently observed, “that despite the NRA’s financial and legal troubles, American gun owners remain fully engaged.”

That’s not likely to change, as Joe Biden has a gun control agenda that amounts to a “wish list” for anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety gun prohibition lobbying group. Some are already suggesting he could accomplish much of his scheme via executive order.

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Montana Gov. Gianforte Signs Bill Expanding Big Sky Gun Rights. iStock-884194872
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- In a clear victory for the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA), Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte has signed legislation doing away with so-called “gun-free zones” and expanding places where firearms may be carried, including college and university campuses, and the Capitol in Helena.

MSSA President Gary Marbut, in an exclusive telephone conversation with Ammoland News, said Gianforte’s signature is “pretty significant” in more ways than one. To merely portray this legislation as allowing so-called constitutional carry “misses the mark a bit,” he said.

Marbut was honored in December by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms as the “Grassroots Activist of the Year” for 2020.

The measure includes campus carry, restaurant and bar carry, and for permit holders to carry inside state and local government buildings, and perhaps most importantly of all, the new law takes effect immediately, according to the Helena Independent Record. The exception is campus carry, which becomes effective this summer.
Private property owners still can prohibit firearms on their premises, the newspaper noted. According to a prepared statement from Marbut posted online, “This includes banks, bars, restaurants, stores, and a host of other publicly accessible places that are privately owned. Certainly, any such places will be required to give ‘fair notice’ of any firearms restrictions, usually by posting obvious signs. Some other states have laws such that if a gun carrier should walk past a no-guns sign on private property with a gun, that is a criminal offense. Not so in Montana.”
Marbut detailed the impacts of HB 102 in his lengthy online explanation, which may be read here.

“The general purpose of HB 102,” he stated, “is to eliminate dangerous ‘gun free zones,’ those places where only criminals would be armed because of a government prohibition that only law-abiding gun owners would obey. HB 102 has four major elements:  Permitless carry, campus carry, restaurant and bar carry, and enhancement of existing concealed weapon permits (CWP), plus some minor elements.”
Later, Marbut observes, “Finally, there is no exception in the RKBA at Article II, Section 12 (of the Montana Constitution) for local governments to restrict this right, and no exception for the university system or the Board of Regents to restrict this right.”

For Marbut, it’s time to catch his breath. He has worked on this project for “six or eight years,” he recalled.
For Gov. Gianforte, it’s fulfillment and unlike his Democrat predecessors, he minced no words about telling the difference between the good guys and bad guys.

“Gun control measures don’t prevent criminals from perpetuating violence or crime. Gun control measures step on the rights of law abiding citizens,” the governor said during the signing ceremony.

Quoted by the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Gov. Gianforte added, “And our Second Amendment is very clear: ‘The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’ Every law-abiding Montanan should be able to defend themselves and their loved ones.”
Gianforte is the first Republican to sit in the Montana governor’s office in 16 years, a fact that undoubtedly played a role in seeing HB 102 become law. Previously, then-Democrat Gov. Steve Bullock vetoed “several gun-related measures,” the Helena newspaper recalled.
The legislation was sponsored by State Rep. Seth Berglee (R-Joliet). It passed through the legislature almost entirely along party lines, a fact not lost on increasingly conservative Big Sky Country voters.
At the signing ceremony, as reported by the Daily Chronicle, Berglee observed, “The idea of self-defense has been a pillar in our society since even before the founding of our country. It’s a right that’s given by God and granted in the constitution. It’s my pleasure to bring House Bill 102, recognizing that the citizens of Montana have the ability to defend themselves, and I trust them with that responsibility.”

Montana’s Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen also supported HB 102, newspapers said. He issued a statement lauding the bill.

“At a time when the president is calling for state-level gun registries, strong legislation affirming Montanans’ gun rights is more important than ever,” Knudsen said. “No bill in the last 20 years has done more to protect our fundamental right to keep and bear arms than Representative Seth Berglee’s bill that was signed into law today.”

The U.S. Concealed Carry Association issued a statement after the legislation was signed, applauding Gov. Gianforte.

“Every American should be able to defend themselves and their families at all times and the U.S. Concealed Carry Association applauds Governor Gianforte for signing this important legislation into law,” said USCCA founder and President Tim Schmidt. “It will help and support the growing number of Montanans who choose to exercise their natural born right to self-protection.
“With millions of new gun owners throughout the U.S.,” Schmidt added, “this bill is also a friendly reminder for all of them to have the proper training and education necessary to be a responsible self-protector – even if the law does not require it.  Owning and carrying a firearm for self-defense comes with a lot of responsibility and safety should always be the number one priority.”

The legislation had opponents, including “Educators, gun owners, bankers, and law enforcement officials,” according to a statement from Democratic House Minority Leader Kim Abbott that was quoted by the Independent Record.
Abbott claimed the measure “makes our communities and our campuses less safe.” It’s an argument gun control proponents use when opposing virtually any firearms freedom legislation.
Marbut told Ammoland there is still work to do on gun rights. He hinted at some of this in his online discussion, but for now, Montana gun owners have a significant victory they can celebrate.

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Joe Biden used the anniversary of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., to press for extremist gun control
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Having waited about four weeks from the day he moved into the White House, Democrat Joe Biden used the Valentine’s Day anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Fla., to demand that Congress “enact commonsense gun law reforms,” which is camo-speak for extremist gun control.

What he calls “common sense” is considered nonsense by Second Amendment advocates who argue none of Biden’s so-called “reforms” will prevent a single violent crime.

In a statement from the White House, the Biden administration declared, “Three years ago today, a lone gunman took the lives of 14 students and three educators at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,” which unsurprisingly got the number of victims wrong. The death toll was 17, as noted by NPR, but getting the details right was secondary to exploiting a tragedy for which plenty of blame could be spread to local officials who knew of the suspect. He had been barred from the campus.

Biden’s radical agenda has been posted online for more than a year. Nobody can claim they didn’t know about it.
He wants:
Licensing for citizens before they can purchase a firearm.
Universal background checks.
A ban on modern sporting rifles and original capacity magazines.
“Smart gun” technology
Repeal of legal protection for firearms makers from harassment lawsuits designed to bankrupt the firearms industry.
One-gun-per-month restrictions for law-abiding gun owners.
Mandated “safe storage” of firearms.
Penalize adults for allowing minors access to firearms.*
Expand so-called “red flag” laws.
Extend the background check period from three to at least ten days.
(*Would the Biden administration punish crime victim 73-year-old Linda Ellis of Goldsboro, N.C. because her 12-year-old grandson was able to access a firearm and fatally shoot one of two thugs who broke into her home Feb. 13 demanding money, and shot her in the leg? The fatally wounded suspect was found in an intersection nearby. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.)

#NEW: A 12-year-old Goldsboro boy fired off shots at two masked robbers who broke in & shot his grandmother, Linda Ellis. One of those robbers died from their injuries.
At 6, we speak to the family about the frightening ordeal & give an update on “Miss Linda’s” condition. pic.twitter.com/q7yvwPXS9j
— Michael Lozano (@MLozanoABC11) February 13, 2021

In the White House statement, the Biden administration threatened to “not wait for the next mass shooting to heed that call. We will take action to end our epidemic of gun violence and make our schools and communities safer.”
Such a statement has “executive order” written all over it, critics believe. The question is: How much authority does Biden have to issue an executive order affecting a constitutionally-enumerated fundamental right? Gun rights advocates are already preparing for court confrontations.
One organization has been busy in that regard for weeks. The Second Amendment Foundation last month launched its “2nd Amendment First Responder” project, which has been publicized by Ammoland News coverage. SAF has been recruiting “First Responders” for the past six weeks and the effort is resulting in an impressive reaction.
SAF has reportedly attracted thousands of new supporters, including first-time gun buyers. In a news release, the foundation detailed this new support:

“Over 25 percent of our new supporters were first-time gun buyers in 2020. Approximately 40 percent of our new gun-owning supporters are women.”

The campaign, which has been advertising on a dozen networks, has also drawn some ugly hate mail including this message from one critic:

“Get the f— off CNN. No lying propaganda you trump (sic) ass licker. We can’t stand you dumb f— republicians (sic). Go back to state news, fox, with your bull s— lies, hate filled speech, name calling, all in the name of God. You lying trump (sic) worshippers will burn in hell. And if you come near my house you c—suckers, I’ll shoot your devil loving, racist ass. Come on.”

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb gets “three or four a day” like this. Earlier messages to SAF have included these gems:

“Please go f— yourself. Thank you.”
“You are inviting violence and mayhem just like your president by showing your ad. It is full of lies and I feel bad for anyone who believes your violent mission. You pray on the weak of mind and they don’t even know it. This is a pathetic and lying organization. Organization is used loosely. Take down your despicable false ad. And DO NOT contact me in any form. This is sickening. Bellevue is pretty pricey, who funds this s–t show?”
“Your ads claiming Biden & Harris will take away guns are grossly fabricated, perfidious lies designed to incite radical, right-wing crypto-fascist violence which IS a violation of the sedition-insurrection act. Your organization can be *charged* with violating the sedition-insurrection act & if you continue to put your outrageously false, pernicious claims on TV we will send an official complaint to the Dept. of Justice plus a possible lawsuit…No Democratic POTUS has *ever* taken away guns, ammo, tootsie rolls, condoms, or guava coated dildos:-) In fact, if anyone takes away guns, it will be a RATpublican like Trump, Cruz or Johnson once they secure a right-wing dictatorship which Trump almost did. So cut the s–t, the surge of pathological, radical right-wing toxin must stop, your orange demon is now out of power and hiding in his Florida bunker where he allows Russian transvestites to urinate on his micro mushroom. Stop the lies, stop the ads or the DOJ will be calling you. Get a life, eat a nice tuna sub with anchovies:-)”
One Michigan-based ammunition company reportedly is refusing to sell ammunition to Biden voters. According to Law Enforcement Today, Fenix Ammunition questions would-be purchasers.

“When a shopper visits Fenix’s website,” the report explains, “a popup prevents the would-be buyer from accessing the site unless they answer ‘No’ to the question, ‘Did you vote for Joe Biden?’
“A ‘Yes’ answer directs the shopper to Biden’s so-called ‘gun safety’ page on his platform website.”

Ultimately, if a customer acknowledges voting for Biden last fall, “the sale is declined.”
Meanwhile, Biden has a long track record of extremist gun control, so any thought he might be bluffing is at best delusional. He promised gun control on the campaign trail, and vowed to put anti-gun former Texas Congressman Beto O’Rourke in charge of his administration’s gun policy.
At the beginning of his administration, Biden called for “unity.” Moving to erode the rights of more than 100 million U.S. citizens is hardly unifying, say critics, and considering the hate-filled reaction to SAF’s “2nd Amendment First Responder” advertising, Biden supporters are not interested in unity at all.
RELATED:

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

SAF’s “wildly successful’ 2nd Amendment First Responder campaign is continuing for a fifth straight week due to positive reaction.
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- For the fifth straight week, the Second Amendment Foundation is sponsoring a “wildly successful” television advertising campaign on more than a dozen networks, encouraging viewers to sign onto the “2nd Amendment First Responder” project in which the growing gun rights organization says it is “providing intellectual ammunition” to win the gun right debate.

According to SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb, “Right now, we’re the only gun rights organization in the nation running a national TV advertising campaign defending gun rights, and continued positive public response makes this possible.”

SAF is based in Bellevue, Wash., just across Lake Washington from Seattle, where MyNorthwest.com recently ran a lengthy article about how “gun violence survivors” are pushing for changes in Evergreen State gun laws. The article, stretching more than 1,600 words, was an emotional piece discussing survivors of the Harvest Festival mass shooting in Las Vegas more than three years ago and talked about legislation (SSB 5038) in the Evergreen State to ban open carry at permitted rallies and demonstrations, especially on the Capitol campus in Olympia. The coverage was designed to highlight the third annual “National Gun Violence Survivors Week.”

However, reaction to the piece on MyNorthwest’s Facebook page was largely negative, with gun rights advocates weighing in with nearly 175 comments.
SAF’s 60-second advertisement raises alarms about Joe Biden’s gun control agenda, and about proposed gun control laws in Washington state. The legislation puts SAF and its sister organization, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, in the middle of a dual battlefield. Seattle is home to a billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobbying group called the Alliance for Gun Responsibility.
While national focus has been on Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee’s radical H.R. 127, which calls for retroactive registration of all guns in the nation, plus licensing and psychological evaluations of every gun owner, the state-level efforts are no less alarming to Second Amendment activists. Veteran rights advocate, author, instructor and SAF President Massad Ayoob weighs in on H.R. 127 at Backwoods Home Magazine.
In addition to the proposed open carry ban, Washington state lawmakers are also considering a ban on so-called “high capacity magazines.” This substitute measure (SSB5078) sets a maximum of 17 rounds that may be carried in a magazine for a semi-auto rifle or pistol.
Both Washington state measures are getting heavy support from anti-gunners, creating an emotionally-charged environment in which SAF’s “2nd Amendment First Responder” activists might have a role, pushing back with facts to educate rather than obfuscate.
For example, gun owners can counter demands for a ban on so-called “assault rifles” by referring to the annual FBI Uniform Crime Report which consistently shows rifles of any kind are used in a fraction of all homicides nationally and at the state level in any given year.
In 2019—the most recent year for which data is available—Washington state reported 194 slayings in which 135 involved firearms. Of those killings, only 7 involved rifles of any type, and three more were attributed to shotguns. Thirty-eight involved firearms of unknown type. That’s fewer people than were murdered in Baltimore, Maryland, yet Washington anti-gunners continually declare the state is in the midst of a “gun violence epidemic.”
Language in both Washington state bills has been modified in an effort to make them more palatable. Originally, people open carrying could not be within 1,000 feet of a demonstration, but that’s been reduced to 250 feet. The original cartridge limit in the other bill was ten rounds, but after repeatedly being told that many commonly-owned pistols come with magazines that can carry up to 15 or 17 rounds, the majority of Democrats allowed that change to be made.

Washington has always been an open carry state, a fact recognized in some court rulings over the years. In one unpublished opinion handed down by the State Court of Appeals, Division II is known as State v. Gregory Elijah Casad, the court wrote:

“We note that, in connection with this case, several individuals have commented that they would find it strange, maybe shocking, to see a man carrying a gun down the street in broad daylight. Casad’s appellate counsel conceded that she would personally react with shock, but she emphasized that an individual’s lack of comfort with firearms does not equate to reasonable alarm. We agree. It is not unlawful for a person to responsibly walk down the street with a visible firearm, even if this action would shock some people.”–Washington State Court of Appeals, Division II

It should not surprise anyone that such a program as SAF’s 2nd Amendment First Responder campaign is reportedly gaining traction. There is apparently a widespread perception that the National Rifle Association is hampered by legal struggles, and many gun owners have been looking elsewhere. SAF’s membership has risen by several thousand in recent months, and that includes the response to the 2nd Amendment First Responder effort.
In a recent announcement about extending the advertising campaign another week, Gottlieb asked rhetorically,

“Who is a 2nd Amendment First Responder? They are average American citizen activists who can quickly respond to threats at the local, state or even federal levels, such as packing the courts in order to erode our Second Amendment rights, by providing intelligent arguments and rational alternatives
“Considering the radical gun control legislation introduced by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, and the threat by anti-gun Senator Dick Durbin to make gun control his top priority, it is hardly surprising that so many people have shown interest in our 2nd Amendment First Responder effort,” Gottlieb continued. “Our activists are interested in making a difference, not just a point.”
“We’re developing and educating community organizers across the country,” he explained. “We are providing them with intellectual ammunition to win the argument. Based on the response so far, there are legions of men and women of all ages, backgrounds, races and religions who are dedicated to the common cause of protecting the right to keep and bear arms from further erosion.”

Several times over the past four years, Gottlieb has remarked he wanted to “Make the Second Amendment great again,” paraphrasing Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.
Now he and other advocates are fighting to prevent the amendment from being further eroded.
RELATED:

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Joe Biden’s presidency is a “dream come true” for gun control, says an anti-gun official.IMG NRA-ILA
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- A top official with the billionaire-backed Everytown for Gun Safety lobbying group admitted to The Hill that Joe Biden’s presidency is a “dream come true” for gun prohibitionists while it will be “the worst nightmare” for gun owners and organizations representing their interests.

Rob Wilcox, deputy director of policy and strategy at Everytown—the anti-gun-rights group set up by Michael Bloomberg—is quoted by The Hill stating, “Simply put, a Biden presidency is the gun lobby’s worst nightmare. But it’s a dream come true for anyone who cares about gun safety in America.”

It’s a statement deliberately overlooking the fact that gun rights organizations—most notably the National Rifle Association and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms—have traditionally advocated safe firearms use by private citizens. NRA has a network of thousands of volunteer firearms instructors, and another group, the U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) also has instructors.

Likewise, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which is a trade association rather than an organization of individual citizens, is a strong proponent of gun safety and has sponsored programs designed to acquaint new shooters with safe firearms handling.

The Hill article also said Nico Bocour, government affairs director for the Giffords gun control group “predicted that America will see some gun reform measures within Biden’s first 100 days in office.”

But The Hill story, Second Amendment advocates would argue, perpetuates the misconception that these groups are about “safety” and “reform,” when those two terms translate to “control” if not outright “prohibition.”
A grassroots group in Washington State produces a T-Shirt bearing the message “Gun Control is Not Gun Safety.”
The Wilcox admission comes on the heels of a declaration by anti-gun Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that he plans to make gun control a “top priority” now that he is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. But according to the Washington Free Beacon, “Democrats enjoy a slim majority in the Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris able to cast tie-breaking votes, a partisan split that makes sweeping, new gun-control legislation difficult to pass. Durbin’s control of the Judiciary Committee, however, will allow him to shape America’s legal landscape.
Durbin’s remarks prompted CCRKBA to respond Monday with a shot across the Senator’s bow.

“Joe Biden has been in office less than two weeks,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, “and he is presiding over an effort by his party to literally crush rights guaranteed and protected by the Bill of Rights. Dick Durbin would not be making such a promise if he wasn’t certain the White House was giving him free rein to erode the Second Amendment into something we won’t recognize.”

Gottlieb said Durbin’s “hostility toward the Second Amendment is well known to the gun rights community.”
“Democrats led by Durbin have been salivating over the damage they might do to the Second Amendment since the November election,” the veteran gun rights advocate observed. “They have made no secret of their intentions, and now Dick Durbin has essentially confirmed the threat to our right to keep and bear arms is genuine.”
As reported earlier by Ammoland News, Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is already busy with a piece of legislation Gottlieb and others in the Second Amendment community are calling “extreme.”
Her H.R. 127 would require licensing of gun owners, mandatory training, psychological evaluations to determine someone’s suitability to own a firearm, retroactive gun registration and separate licensing for modern sporting rifles. Successful licensees must show they have an insurance policy which will cost $800.
Additionally, Jackson Lee’s bill would require the owner of any firearm to supply the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the make, model and serial number of every gun he or she owns, including guns they may have owned for years. They would also have to report the identity of any person to whom, and any period of time during which, the firearm will be loaned to that individual.

This is the “gun control overreach” to which CCRKBA alludes in its statement to the press.
“All this means is that Durbin and his fellow Democrats are pulling out all the stops,” Gottlieb said. “After years of waiting, they believe this is the right moment to destroy the right to keep and bear arms in the guise of ‘gun safety,’ so a right belonging to all citizens becomes a privilege enjoyed by a few. Durbin’s priority is to enact Draconian gun control laws. Our priority as citizens must be to stop him.”
That could be a tall order. However, in recent weeks, CCRKBA’s sister organization, the Second Amendment Foundation, has been actively recruiting grassroots activists to join the “2nd Amendment First Responder” program. The advertising effort has so far been hugely successful, and it is continuing this week on more than a dozen networks.
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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Far-left advocacy groups are pressing Joe Biden to fulfill his commitment for a “bipartisan commission to study Supreme Court reforms.”, iStock-1020504756
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Sworn into office with a widely-reported gun control plan just waiting to be unleashed, Joe Biden is “committed” to act on his campaign promise to create a “bipartisan commission to study Supreme Court reforms,” according to Fox News.

If the scenario plays out, it could open the door for anti-gun Democrats to pack the high court—which now has a constitutionally-friendly majority—thus derailing potential rulings that would reverse years of erosion of the Second Amendment protection of the right to keep and bear arms.

Fox News quoted an unidentified White House official who stated, “The President remains committed to an expert study of the role and debate over reform of the court and will have more to say in the coming weeks.”

According to the Fox story, “Eight progressive organizations banded together to form the ‘Unrig the Courts’ coalition to pressure Democrats to use their power to act. Their four demands are expanding the number of justices on the Supreme Court, expanding lower federal courts, enacting term limits for Supreme Court justices and improving ethics and transparency requirements for justices.”

One of those groups calls itself “Take Back the Court.” Another is “51 for 51,” a movement to grant statehood to the District of Columbia.
Why does the federal court system need “reforming?” Because former President Donald Trump was able to fill some 200 vacancies with conservative judges and three conservative justices, whose impacts are already being felt.
The best example of this is a California case, Duncan v. Becerra. Two years ago, District Judge Roger Benitez, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that California’s ban on so-called “high capacity magazines” is unconstitutional. Last year, in a 2-1 ruling, a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Benitez decision. The majority opinion was written by Judge Kenneth Lee, a Trump appointee. This is why, say many gun rights advocates, “elections matter.”
California has asked for an en banc hearing before a full panel. From there, the case could go to the Supreme Court. A victory could nullify magazine bans beyond California’s borders, and the Ninth Circuit ruling already poses a problem to anti-gun lawmakers in Washington who are currently pushing legislation to ban such magazines.
Biden’s threat to gun rights on the federal level and efforts to push more gun control at the state level underscores the critical nature of a campaign launched earlier this month by the Second Amendment Foundation that is now heading into a fourth week, thanks to what SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb says in a Thursday news release has been an “overwhelming positive reaction.”
The project is called “2nd Amendment First Responders,” a grassroots-oriented program designed to turn gun owners into gun rights activists. The recruiting advertisement will appear an addition 69 times during the first week of February. Since it began, the ad has run 119 times on more than a dozen networks.

“By the end of next week,” Gottlieb calculated, “our 60-second message will have been broadcast a total of 268 times, reaching millions of viewers. We’re able to extend our effort because of the growing positive response. It’s been astounding.”

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The “2nd Amendment First Responder” recruitment message will continue airing on BBC America, Destination America, the Investigation Discovery Channel, American Heroes Channel, SYFY (Science Fiction), TLC (The Learning Channel), TruTV, DirecTV, Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, MSNBC, The Weather Channel, One America News Network, CNBC, HLN, Bloomberg, Dish TV, the Outdoor Channel and Sportsman Channel, SAF said.

The longer this recruiting effort continues, the more people will join. According to Gottlieb, who chatted with AmmoLand News, public support for SAF this month is twice what it was in January 2020.

“The number of new members, donors and supporters has more than doubled for this time period,” he said, “and we’re expanding staff to meet the threats against our rights. We’re excited about growing while other organizations have been reducing staff and activities.”

So, while Biden and his Democrat allies now in control on Capitol Hill are looking to press his gun control agenda, SAF is literally recruiting legions of citizen activists to stop them.
A key part of that effort, Gottlieb revealed, will be a “massive internet advertising campaign” that will soon be launched. It will reach out to millions of new gun owners who bought their first gun sometime in recent months. SAF will continue its legal action and public education efforts, thanks to this new support.
Possibly one factor in the heightened interest about SAF was the recent word from the National Rifle Association it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and reincorporating in Texas.
Gottlieb accused anti-gunners of “celebrating” NRA’s situation, but he warned the gun prohibition lobby and its allies in Congress and state legislatures, “Gun owners are engaging at record levels with organizations like the Second Amendment Foundation to fight back against billionaire-backed groups and politicians who are attempting to take away our rights.”
By the same measure, it would be ill-advised to consider the NRA on the ropes.
There is something else, and Biden owns it. If he does launch his so-called “bipartisan commission of scholars” to provide recommendations on “court reform” in 180 days—six months from now—he is going to be reminded of his remarks decades ago while serving as a senator from Delaware. At the time, as noted by Fox News, he dismissed the idea of “court-packing” as stupid.

“President Roosevelt clearly had the right to send to the United States Senate and the United States Congress a proposal to pack the court,” Biden said at the time. “It was totally within his right to do that. He violated no law. He was legalistically, absolutely correct. But it was a bonehead idea. It was a terrible, terrible mistake to make. And it put in question, if for an entire decade, the independence of the most-significant body … in this country, the Supreme Court of the United States of America.”

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About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, reportedly sees a trend toward constitutional carry as “frightening.”
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- ABC News and the Associated Press have reported that efforts in several states to adopt “permitless” concealed carry laws—generically called “constitutional carry”—is “a frightening trend for Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action (MDA).”

But proponents of constitutional carry, which is now the law in some 15 states, aren’t frightened at all. There are constitutional carry efforts underway in several states, the news agencies reported, including Utah. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, House Bill 60 is moving through the legislature and Gov. Spencer Cox supports the concept. The bill, which may be read here, has 33 co-sponsors.

But it is Montana where Watts’ group, which is supported by anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg, is focusing much of its alarmist rhetoric. There, according to Gary Marbut, president of the Montana Shooting Sports Association (MSSA), House Bill 102 is progressing. Via email, he told Ammoland News the measure, which will eliminate so-called “gun-free zones” and allow permitless carry, along with other reforms, “has passed the House and will see executive action by the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

Gary Marbut
He acknowledged the potential for some amendments, but he predicted a win in the Senate and then the legislation goes back to the House for concurrence.
Permitless concealed carry legislation evidently doesn’t please Watts at all. She told the Associated Press, “It is dangerous to allow people to carry hidden, loaded handguns possibly without a background check or any training.”
But the Moms group has taken to personally attacking Marbut, describing him in a news release as a “reckless gun extremist.” The group contends Marbut—the 2020 recipient of the “Grassroots Activist of the Year” award from the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms—has “extensive links to the militia movement and other extremists (sic) groups.”

And MDA further asserts: “In a recent piece in The Missoulian, Marbut highlights his support for a program that encourages children in first through third grade to have firearms in their classrooms. Research shows us that when children have access to firearms it triples the risk of firearm suicide across all age groups.”

However, the program does not appear to encourage any such thing, and neither does Marbut. Instead, the veteran Second Amendment advocate offered a draft resolution for consideration by the Missoula City Council.
The resolution includes a suggestion that the “Be Safe” program, a “firearms safety curricula designed for children in first through third grade” and approved by the Office of Public Instruction be used in the Missoula school system. And what does this program say?

“Be Safe is a story about how one typical Montana family deals with firearm safety issues in their home,” the website says. “This story is designed to be read to children of ages in first through third grades.
“Usually,” the explanation continues, “the presenter will read the story to kids, then will pass out a copy of the Be Safe brochure to each child, and ask them to take it home and ask a parent to read it to the child and siblings one more time before the children’s bed time. This helps initiate a family dialog about gun safety, and helps establish family standards for gun safety.
“Some parents may say, ‘But we don’t have any guns in our home,’” the narrative acknowledges. “Fine, but nearly all children will sometimes play at a friend’s or neighbor’s home. We estimate that about 90% of the homes in Montana contain firearms. We want all children to understand the first principle about gun safety for kids – don’t touch. If children should come into association with a firearm, anywhere, they will need the inoculation of some firearm safety preparation, just like water safety, fire safety, or traffic safety.”

Instead of promoting fear of firearms, the “Be Safe” program appears to promote respect for guns.
Marbut’s draft resolution also includes a section promoting the teaching of a Hunter Education course in Missoula public schools; the course offered by the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

But this example raises a question: If the Moms group says this about Marbut and his effort to provide genuine firearms safety training as part of the public school curriculum—there is nothing suggesting that children “have firearms in their classrooms”—what else is the Moms group wrong about? And is this apparent misrepresentation an accident or deliberate?

In his November 2020 Op-Ed in the Missoulian, Marbut recommended “that some additional training be planned and implemented for any City of Missoula personnel who may be involved in any way with enforcing Missoula ordinances, so that such personnel will be familiar with the changed conditions. Such training will help avoid any misunderstandings that could incur liability for the City of Missoula.”
This was in the wake of voter approval of Legislative Referendum 130, which strengthened state preemption.
It appears likely “constitutional carry” will become law in Utah and Montana, and perhaps elsewhere, the Associated Press story indicated.

Meanwhile, in Washington State, legislation is under consideration that likely appeals more to MDA members because it would ban so-called “high capacity magazines.” During a spirited hearing Monday before the Washington Senate Law & Justice Committee, advocates and proponents testified, reminding the Democrat-dominated committee that a case currently in the Ninth U.S. Court of Appeals known as Duncan v. Becerra has already been ruled on twice, both times finding a ban on such magazines in California to be unconstitutional.
RELATED:

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.

Lawmakers in at least three state capitals are considering laws to repeal state preemption statutes.
U.S.A. –-(AmmoLand.com)- Anti-gun lawmakers in at least three states are pushing legislation to undo state firearms preemption statutes in an effort to return to the days when gun owners could easily fall victim to legal rat traps by crossing an invisible line between two jurisdictions with gun laws that might conflict with one another.

Legislation has been introduced in Florida, Oregon, and Washington—all by Democrats—to repeal state preemption statutes that have been around for several years and have always worked.

The warning seems clear to gun owners in the rest of some 40 states with preemption laws: What is happening now in the Southeast and Pacific Northwest could be coming to your state.
Preemption statutes bring uniformity to state gun regulations, and perhaps that is why gun control zealots want to be rid of them. Confusing and contradictory gun laws almost amount to entrapment, according to some supporters of preemption laws, and that’s why many such laws were passed in the first place.

In Florida, State Sen. Annette Taddeo and State Rep. Dan Daley, both from South Florida, are behind companion measures Senate Bill 672 and House Bill 6033.
About 2,800 miles northwest, perennial anti-gun State Sen. Ginny Burdick, a Portland Democrat, has unveiled Senate Bill 535, which would undo the Beaver State law that has protected gun owners from Medford to Milton-Freewater.
North of the Columbia River, Seattle-area liberal Democrat Reps. David Hackney and Nicole Macri are behind House Bill 1313, which is not the first attempt to remove the Evergreen State’s 35-year-old model preemption law.
Long story short, gun prohibitionists despise preemption because it prevents them from adopting extremist local ordinances when they can’t impose radical gun laws at the state level. Everytown for Gun Safety’s research arm contends at its website, “State firearm preemption laws override common sense by limiting cities wracked with gun violence to the identical laws that apply in rural areas where responsible gun ownership is more embedded in daily life.”

By contrast, the National Rifle Association notes at its website, “There are multiple arguments against local restrictions on basic firearm rights. Historically, some local jurisdictions have imposed clearly unconstitutional restrictions on gun ownership—the District of Columbia’s and Chicago’s since-overturned handgun bans being two recent examples. It also creates confusion when laws vary widely within a state, potentially placing otherwise law-abiding citizens at risk of violating an ordinance of which they were not previously aware, as they travel within their states, and more so when they travel outside their state of residence.”

The importance of state preemption statutes—which Everytown says exist in 42 states—cannot be overstated now that Joe Biden is in the White House. He made gun control a cornerstone of his campaign, and now the nation’s tens of millions of gun owners and the firearms industry are waiting for the worst. With Democrats in control on Capitol Hill, by admittedly thin margins, grassroots activists are being advised to stay focused and be ready to fight.
Over the years, state preemption laws have prevented anti-gun municipal governments from infringing on the rights of legally-armed citizens in Seattle and San Francisco. Presently, the NRA and Second Amendment Foundation are challenging a Seattle “safe storage” ordinance in state court on the grounds that it violates the state preemption law. About ten years ago, SAF and NRA, joined by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and the Washington Arms Collectors took Seattle to court over an effort to ban firearms from city park facilities. That attempt also failed because of state preemption, and the city’s ultra-liberal city government hasn’t gotten over the defeat.
While the measures in Oregon and Florida are somewhat matter-of-fact, Washington’s Hackney and Macri open their legislation with a diatribe explanation of its necessity.

“The legislature finds,” their preamble declares, “that gun violence is a public health crisis in Washington state. For over 30 years, local towns, cities, and counties have been blocked from taking action on their own to prevent gun violence because of the statewide preemption of local regulations relating to firearms. The legislature intends to provide local jurisdictions the ability to build upon statewide standards and adopt responsible approaches to firearms regulations to help address the epidemic of firearm violence in their communities by restoring inherent local authority to adopt firearms regulations under the police power to protect public health, safety, and welfare.”

Washington has become something of a petri dish for anti-gunners wanting to experiment with various gun control proposals. Now, it appears, the gun control lobby and its state legislative allies are broadening their offensive.

Links to state repeal legislation:

About Dave Workman
Dave Workman is a senior editor at TheGunMag.com and Liberty Park Press, author of multiple books on the Right to Keep & Bear Arms, and formerly an NRA-certified firearms instructor.