SAF Victory In Palmer 'One More Step' Toward Firearms Freedom

BELLEVUE, Wash., July 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Saturday's long-awaited victory in Palmer v. District of Columbia is "one more important step toward firearms freedom," the Second Amendment Foundation said today after reviewing the ruling, which the District of Columbia now reportedly plans to appeal.

"We will take all necessary steps to defend our victory against an unconstitutional ban on bearing arms outside of one's home," vowed SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. "The decision by Judge Frederick J. Scullin, Jr., reinforces our efforts in challenging burdensome concealed carry laws in several states."

In his 19-page ruling, Judge Scullin wrote, "In light of Heller, McDonald and their progeny, there is no longer any basis on which this Court can conclude that the District of Columbia's total ban on the public carrying of ready-to-use handguns outside the home is constitutional under any level of scrutiny."

"Ever since the 2008 Heller ruling by the Supreme Court, the District of Columbia has carried on a campaign of red tape and regulation to discourage citizens from exercising their Second Amendment rights," Gottlieb said. "This has included bearing arms outside the home for personal protection. We applaud Judge Scullin's ruling, because the time is long overdue for the city to realize that it is the capitol of the United States, not a police state."

"Washington, D.C. is not some political gulag," he observed, "but the seat of government in a land of free people. A cornerstone of that freedom is the right to keep and bear arms, and where better to exercise that right than in the nation's capital? We have no intention of letting anti-gun city officials further delay the ability of law-abiding citizens to exercise their rights. As Dr. Martin Luther King said, 'A right delayed is a right denied.'

SAF lawsuits have overturned laws not only in Washington D.C., but in several states including Illinois, California, North Carolina, New Mexico, Nebraska, and cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Des Moines and New Haven, among others, Gottlieb noted. Threats of SAF lawsuits have removed well over 100 anti-gun-rights laws across the country as well as stopping hundreds more from being enacted, he added.

"We are focusing our efforts on getting rid of unconstitutional violations of firearms owners' civil rights in Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, California and other states," he said.

"These victories have been made possible by hundreds of thousands of concerned Americans who have financially supported SAF efforts over the years," Gottlieb noted. "Thanks to them, we have been able to field a first-rate team of legal advocates headed by noted civil rights attorney Alan Gura."

"SAF's record of legal victories on behalf of the right to keep and bear arms has set the bar for all current and future firearms civil rights litigation," Gottlieb concluded. "This is not SAF's last step, but only the latest, in our efforts to win back firearms freedom, one lawsuit at a time."

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.

SOURCE Second Amendment Foundation