2A Groups Praise Barrett Confirmation, Prep SCOTUS Challenges

Second Amendment organizations are hailing the confirmation of Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a huge step towards the Court once again taking up a case dealing with the right to keep and bear arms. We discussed a few of the Second Amendment-related cases percolating in the judicial system in a post this morning, but on today’s Bearing Arms’ Cam & Co, we dig a little deeper into the issue with the Second Amendment Foundation’s executive vice president and founder, Alan Gottlieb.

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Gottlieb says that Barrett being on the bench at the Supreme Court should provide the votes necessary to start hearing Second Amendment cases once again, and he says that everything from bans on so-called assault weapons and high capacity magazines to the right to carry to the restoration of rights is currently being litigated in lower courts.

Gottlieb’s not alone in his optimism that Barrett’s confirmation will breathe new life into Second Amendment cases at the Supreme Court. The Firearms Policy Coalition’s president Brandon Combs is chomping at the bit to get before the Court.

“FPC’s legal team, the largest and most impactful of its kind in the nation, is already hard at work on some of the most important Second Amendment lawsuits in the country, and is actively preparing dozens more,” said Combs. “As Justice Thomas has explained, the Second Amendment is not a second-class right. We are eager to see the Supreme Court grant certiorari in an appropriate case, reaffirm that the Constitution’s text means exactly what it says, and once more clarify that recalcitrant lower courts cannot continue to apply the interest balancing tiered scrutiny the Court expressly rejected in Heller.”

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NRA-ILA’s Jason Ouimet also praised Barrett’s confirmation, saying that she “promises to serve with distinction and honor,” and the National Shooting Sports Foundation’s senior vice president and general counsel Lawrence Keane says the organization is “extremely pleased” by Barrett’s new status as an Associate Justice.

“Justice Barrett’s service will reaffirm the importance of originalist jurists when protecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding Americans. The firearm industry is grateful for the resolute foresight of President Donald Trump to nominate such a qualified jurist to serve on the bench.”

Gottlieb did sound a note of caution by noting that if Joe Biden and Democrats win both the White House and the Senate, then all bets are off. With demands by many Democrats to pack the Supreme Court with four new Democratic-appointed justices, Gottlieb believes that Biden would almost certainly try to change the structure of the Court and negate the Republican-appointed majority now in place, which would not only be disastrous in the legal fight for recognition of our Second Amendment rights, but would be a severe blow to the legitimacy of the judicial system itself.

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Be sure to check out the entire interview with Gottlieb in the video window above, which also includes his impressions of gun owners’ enthusiasm in Arizona, a critical battleground state for Trump’s re-election bid and the site of a Trump rally on Wednesday that Gottlieb will be attending.

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