Anti-Gun Activists Target 1st Amendment Rights Of 2A Supporters

Gun control advocates aren’t just using litigation, legislation, and regulations to target the right to keep and bear arms. They’re also engaged in a cultural fight to change the hearts and minds of Americans when it comes to gun ownership. They want to de-normalize the exercise of a civil right, and to shame people into disarming, or at least remain silent instead of vocally supporting the right.

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That’s why the city of Los Angeles tried to impose a blacklist of companies that supported the NRA, requiring that any vendor hoping to do business with the city had to disclose any support for or relationship with the NRA. On today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co., the president of the California Rifle & Pistol Association, Chuck Michel, joins me to discuss the lawsuit the NRA brought against the city, and the fact that the NRA is now able to drop the case because the city has repealed the unconstitutional ordinance rather than continue to try to defend it in court.

In December, the NRA won a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the ordinance. On Jan. 21, the City Council voted to repeal the law.

In the settlement filing, the NRA said it was satisfied that the city “cannot and shall not re-enact” the law or any similar measure.

The NRA won’t seek damages in the case. The city agreed to negotiate over how much it will pay toward the organization’s legal fees and costs.

This attack on the freedom of association is just one in a series of moves by anti-gun activists in California to chill the speech of gun owners. We’ve also seen a push to ban gun shows across the state, depriving gun owners of the opportunity to peacefully assemble to buy and sell firearms, as well as engage in political or educational activities.

Thankfully, gun owners in California are continuing to speak out, and Chuck and I also discuss a very important book written by a Californian who’s seen both sides of the issue. David Frankel was an attorney at Petit & Martin in San Francisco when a deranged man walked into the offices in 1993 and opened fire, killing eight people. In the aftermath, Frankel helped to create Legal Community Against Violence, which in effect operates as an anti-gun litigation firm (it’s now called the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence).

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Over time, however, Frankel’s views on gun control and gun ownership changed, and he’s now gone from litigating in support of gun control laws to litigating in support of the Second Amendment rights of Americans. His journey is detailed in the incredibly moving book Coming to Terms: A Mass Shooting Survivor’s Story, and it’s one that every gun owner should read.

Also on today’s program; an armed Ohio man who stopped an armed burglar and held him for deputies, a man accused of a double murder in Chicago who walked away with probation for an earlier robbery charge, and an Arizona police officer who came to the aid of an elderly victim of a scam artist.

Thanks as always for watching, listening, and spreading the word!

 

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