{"id":30247,"date":"2020-04-27T21:13:08","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T21:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=30247"},"modified":"2020-04-28T10:59:14","modified_gmt":"2020-04-28T10:59:14","slug":"a-win-in-virginia-for-indoor-ranges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/?p=30247","title":{"rendered":"A Win In Virginia For Indoor Ranges (Updated)"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:4903,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/dl.airtable.com\\\/.attachments\\\/e070e452be7aa714c8a7f1ce6b75c1c1\\\/a1422cab\\\/LynchburgRangevNorthamOrder.pdf&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:4904,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/bearingarms.com\\\/cam-e\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/27\\\/judge-halts-northam-order&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/bearingarms.com\\\/camedwards\\\/2020\\\/04\\\/27\\\/judge-halts-northam-order-n37523&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Despite the Supreme Court punting on the NYSRPA case, it hasn&#8217;t been a totally bad day in the courts. Judge F. Patrick Yeatts of the 24th Judicial District of Virginia granted SafeSide Virginia, VCDL, GOA, and the Association of Gun Ranges of Virginia <a href=\"https:\/\/dl.airtable.com\/.attachments\/e070e452be7aa714c8a7f1ce6b75c1c1\/a1422cab\/LynchburgRangevNorthamOrder.pdf\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>a temporary injunction against Gov. Ralph Northam&#8217;s closure order.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Judge Yeatts found that Gov. Northam had exceeded his authority in closing indoor gun ranges. Northam had argued that his authority came from his chief executive power to assure that &#8220;laws are faithfully executed&#8221; and that he could ignore laws that limited his authority. Judge Yeatts disagreed saying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The Court cannot agree with such an expansive interpretation of the Governor&#8217;s authority. His duty to &#8220;take care that the laws be faithfully executed&#8221; include the laws that limit his power during emergencies like \u00a744-146.15 (3).<\/p><p>Accordingly, the Court finds that the Governor&#8217;s power to close whole categories of businesses would only come from \u00a744-146.17, which is constrained by \u00a744-146.15(3) regarding the right to keep and bear arms.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Judge Yeatts notes that the Virginia Constitution includes the words &#8220;trained to arms&#8221; in the prefatory clause of the Commonwealth&#8217;s equivalent of the Second Amendment. He goes on to say that &#8220;gun ranges provide a venue for such training to occur, thus, &#8220;bear arms&#8221; includes loading and shooting at a gun range.&#8221; He then references the 7th Circuit&#8217;s decision in the <em>Ezell v. Chicago<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In discussing the appropriate level of scrutiny, Judge Yeatts says, &#8220;The Court declines to invent a level of scrutiny to circumvent the text in the statute.&#8221; \u00a744-146.15(3) says that the governor cannot &#8220;<em>in any way limit or prohibit<\/em> the right of the people to keep and bear arms&#8221; during an emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The judge believes the plaintiffs will succeed on the merits. He found that they would suffer irreparable harm if forced to stay closed, that the balance of equities favors granting a temporary injunction, and that the injunction favors the public interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>His order granting the injunction does note that safe distancing and sanitizing edicts of Executive Order 53 should be followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cam Edwards, <a href=\"https:\/\/bearingarms.com\/cam-e\/2020\/04\/27\/judge-halts-northam-order\/\" class=\"rank-math-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>writing at BearingArms.com<\/strong><\/a>, believes Northam will appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>The governor will almost certainly appeal Judge Yeatts decision, but for the moment, SafeSide Lynchburg and other indoor ranges in the state are allowed to re-open. The judge made the right call. Let\u2019s hope that the state Supreme Court agrees.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>I agree with Cam&#8217;s hope that the Virginia Supreme Court likewise agrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>UPDATE:<\/strong> I should clarify that Judge Yeatts&#8217; order only applies to SafeSide Lynchburg. He did not order the rest of the indoor ranges in the state be opened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>VCDL sent out an email regarding the win and noted:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>As for the other indoor ranges that are still closed, VCDL is disappointed that they&nbsp;were not covered under the ruling and we are weighing our legal options at this time. &nbsp;Our goal is to get all indoor ranges the option of reopening as soon as possible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite the Supreme Court punting on the NYSRPA case, it hasn&#8217;t been a totally bad day in the courts.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":2,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5051,5026,5232,5231,2024],"class_list":["post-30247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-coronavirus","tag-gov-ralph-northam","tag-judge-f-patrick-yeatts","tag-lynchburg-range-training-et-al-v-northam","tag-virginia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30247"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30251,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30247\/revisions\/30251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlygunsandmoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}