NRA-Backed Challenge to San Francisco Gun Laws Moves Ahead
FAIRFAX, Va. –-(Ammoland.com)- On Sept. 27, Judge Richard Seeborg of the United States District Court, Northern District of California, let plaintiffs move ahead with a case challenging San Francisco’s enactment and enforcement of three city ordinances requiring firearms be disabled by a trigger lock or stored in a locked container, banning the sale of ammunition that “serves no sporting purpose,” and prohibiting firearm discharges with no self-defense exception unduly burdens the right to self-defense.
The case of Jackson v. City & County of San Francisco, fully funded by the NRA and the California Rifle and Pistol Association Foundation, can now move forward on its merits.
The case has already been successful in forcing the City to amend its discharge ban, a law that has been in place for some 73 years, to allow for discharges in self-defense, defense of others, and all other circumstances allowed for under state and federal law.
In February of this year, the City of San Francisco filed a motion claiming that plaintiffs had no standing (that is, no right to bring the suit) because the city did not enforce the laws in question. Therefore, claimed the city, the plaintiffs have no legitimate fear of prosecution and suffer no injury by complying with the law.
In his ruling, Judge Seeborg rejected the city’s effort to have the case thrown out, ruling that the plaintiffs have “adequately alleged an intent and desire to engage in conduct that is prohibited by the ordinances but which they contend is constitutionally protected.”
The full text of the court’s order can be viewed here at www.calgunlaws.com.