BELLEVUE, WA – Three victories in three Second Amendment-related cases—two from New York and one from Wisconsin—is good news for gun rights, the Second Amendment Foundation said today.
“This should be tantamount to ‘three strikes and you’re out’,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “Gun control took three hard punches and should be down for the count.”
He was alluding to the following cases:
• The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against New York City in its attempt to stay a challenge to that city’s handgun law that prevents gun owners from taking their handguns outside of their homes or the city. The Court has already granted review of the case.
• The Wisconsin State Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit against Armslist LLC that alleged the popular website was liable for the acquisition of a gun by Radcliffe Haughton in October 2012. Haughton was subject to a restraining order at the time. The state high court ruled 5-1 that Armslist LLC is protected from liability by the federal Communications Decency Act. Haughton used the gun to murder his wife and two of her co-workers.
• The New York State Supreme Court dismissed two SAFE Act charges against a man convicted of selling a firearm to an undercover officer in 2014. The SAFE (for Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement) is an extreme gun control act championed by anti-gun-rights Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
“In New York’s cases,” Gottlieb observed, “the court rulings should be a clear signal that the state, and New York City, have taken gun control to unacceptable extremes. They need to be reined in.
“The Wisconsin case should never have been filed in the first place,” he added. “The federal law is supposed to prevent such legal actions, and the Armslist case shows why.
“Gun rights court victories are like seeds,” Gottlieb said. “They grow into big legal precedents.”