The Second Amendment Foundation was handed another win today in the Washington State Court of Appeals for District 1. The court unanimously upheld a King County Superior Court ruling that said a City of Seattle ban on guns in city parks was invalid.<\/p>\n
The Second Amendment Foundation continues to secure gun rights one lawsuit at a time!<\/p>\n
Their release on the win is below.<\/p>\n
APPEALS COURT UPHOLDS SAF VICTORY IN LAWSUIT V. SEATTLE PARKS GUN BAN<\/p>\n
For Immediate Release: 10\/31\/2011<\/p>\n
BELLEVUE, WA \u2013 The Washington State Court of Appeals for Division 1 today unanimously upheld a 2010 King County Superior Court ruling against the City of Seattle\u2019s ban on firearms in city parks in a lawsuit originally brought by the Second Amendment Foundation, other gun rights groups and five individual plaintiffs.<\/p>\n
SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said he had always been confident that the Appeals Court would rule \u201cin favor of the law and against the attempt by Seattle to dance around it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe told former Mayor Greg Nickels he was wrong,\u201d Gottlieb said, \u201cand we have reminded the city under Mayor Mike McGinn that it was wrong, and now the Appeals Court has confirmed our position.\u201d<\/p>\n
SAF was joined in the lawsuit by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the National Rifle Association and Washington Arms Collectors.<\/p>\n
Writing for the Court, Presiding Chief Judge Ann Schindler noted, \u201cWe hold that under the plain language of RCW 9.41.290 and RCW 9.41.300, the city\u2019s attempt to regulate the possession of firearms at designated park areas and park facilities open to the public by adopting the Firearms Rule is preempted by state law.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not only a victory for the citizens of Washington State,\u201d he said, \u201cbut also for the State Legislature, which had the wisdom in 1983 and 1985 to pass and strengthen our preemption statute. This law has become the model for other state statutes across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ruling is also an affirmation of Judge Catherine Shaffer\u2019s original trial court ruling last year,\u201d he continued. \u201cShe had the foresight to include observations about our state constitutional right to bear arms but also the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow that the Second Amendment has been incorporated to the states through our victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago,\u201d Gottlieb concluded, \u201cit is going to be impossible for anti-gun politicians in the Evergreen State to defy our preemption statute and our constitutional rights. Such local rules and ordinances are illegal, and now they know it for sure.\u201d <\/i> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n