BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and its colleagues in a ground-breaking First Amendment case defending the right of Junior Sports Magazine and others to publish Second Amendment-related material in California have filed a response brief to Attorney General Rob Bonta’s petition for an en banc rehearing in the case of Junior Sports Magazines v. Bonta.
California already lost unanimously on appeal before a three-judge panel.
SAF was joined by Junior Sports Magazines, Inc., the California Youth Shooting Sports Association, Redlands California Youth Clay Shooting Sports, California Rifle & Pistol Association, the CRPA Foundation, Gun Owners of California, and Raymond Brown. They are represented by attorneys Anna M. Barvir and C. D. Michel of Long Beach, Calif., and Donald Kilmer of Caldwell, Idaho.
“This is yet another example of California’s stubborn reluctance to allow anything relating to firearms and their positive use, including a magazine devoted to safe use of firearms by young people for hunting or competition,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “This is clearly a First Amendment case in which the state is trying to suppress free speech and freedom of the press, because the material includes advertising from firearms manufacturers.”
In their brief, SAF and its partners contend the en banc request should be denied.
“The three-judge panel’s decision was well-reasoned and consistent with First Amendment precedents in the Ninth Circuit and at the Supreme Court,” noted SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “However, the petition from the state fails right out of the gate.
“Furthermore,” Kraut added, “the state has produced no evidence that it is experiencing a rash of gun sales to minors, or that marketing to any demographic has led to violence committed by minors illegally buying guns.”