Alan Gura

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SAF and Alan Gura Go After Chicago….Again

August 16, 2010 by

From the Second Amendment Foundation announcing their lawsuit against the City of Chicago for banning gun ranges:

SAF SUES CHICAGO OVER GUN RANGE PROHIBITION ON 1A, 2A GROUNDS

For Immediate Release: 8/16/2010

CHICAGO, IL – The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) today filed a lawsuit in federal court against the City of Chicago’s new gun ordinance, asserting that “by banning gun ranges open to the public…under color of law,” the city is depriving citizens of their right to keep and bear arms in violation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Joining SAF in this lawsuit are the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA), Action Target, Inc., and three individual plaintiffs including a retired Chicago police detective. They are represented by attorneys Alan Gura of Virginia and David Sigale of Chicago, who teamed up with SAF and ISRA on the landmark case of McDonald v. City of Chicago, which incorporated the Second Amendment to the states, effectively striking down Chicago’s 28-year-old handgun ban.

“While the city has adopted new regulations that make it legal to own handguns,” said SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “they have crafted this new ordinance to make it virtually impossible for prospective gun owners to meet all legal requirements unless they travel outside the city for mandatory training. The new ordinance prohibits public gun ranges inside the city yet the city demands that handgun owners get at least one hour of range training time.

“This is a ‘Catch-22’ scenario,” he continued, “that seems deliberately designed to discourage Chicago residents from exercising their firearm civil rights barely two months after those rights were restored by the Supreme Court.”

Individual plaintiffs are Rhonda Ezell, a victim of three attempted burglaries who has disabilities making it difficult for her to travel outside the city; Joseph Brown, a WWII U.S. Army veteran who was among the liberators of the infamous Dachau concentration camp, and William Hespen, a retired police detective, all of whom must qualify for Chicago Firearms Permits.

Action Target, a Utah-based company, builds shooting ranges and manufactures gun range equipment and supplies. It has a long history of providing gun safety equipment and training, and has previously built law enforcement shooting ranges in Chicago. However, Action Target is prohibited from building a public target range within the city’s limits under the restrictions of the new gun ordinance.

Randy Graham, vice president of Action Target, said, “We believe that citizens have a constitutional right to use and train with firearms in a safe and controlled environment. As a leader in the firearms training industry, Action Target is committed to standing up for these rights.”

“By banning public gun ranges,” Gottlieb said, “and by banning the loan and rental of firearms at such ranges, Chicago is acting under color of law to deprive citizens of their right to keep and bear arms, and to conveniently receive the education required under the ordinance that is necessary to obtain a Chicago Firearms Permit. The city is violating both the Second and First amendments, and we are asking the court to put an end to this nonsense.”

UPDATE: Embedded below is the complaint in Ezell et al v. City of Chicago.

Ezell et al v. Chicago – Complaint

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Next Gura Target – Westchester County, New York

July 15, 2010 by 2 Comments

Less than two weeks after Alan Gura and the Second Amendment Foundation sued the State of North Carolina, they are back. This time they are suing Westchester County, New York over its enforcement of the State of New York’s handgun carry permit process which requires the showing of “good cause.”

Alan Kachalsky and Christina Nikolov, both residents of Westchester County, were denied handgun carry permits when they applied.

Kachalsky’s denial was because he could not “demonstrate a need for self protection distinguishable from that of the general public.” Nikolov’s was denied because she could not demonstrate that there was “any type of threat to her own safety anywhere.” In addition to Westchester County, Susan Cacace and Jeffrey Cohen, both serving at times as handgun permit licensing officers, are named as defendants. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, White Plains Division.

 The case is Kachalsky v. Cacase, U.S. Dist. Ct. S.D. NY 10-05413.

I will post the complete complaint as soon as it is available in Pacer.

Way to go Alan and Alan! Taking it solidly into unfriendly territory takes guts.

UPDATE: Mr. Kachalsky first sued in New York state court on this issue. It reached the NY State Court of Appeals (the highest level in the state of New York). His appeal was denied in February 2010. The case, In the Matter of Alan Kachalsky v. Susan Cacace, SSD 4 (2010), was dismissed by the Court sua sponte (without a request for a motion) saying there was no substantial constitutional issue involved . However, one of the judges dissented.
 
In his dissent, Judge Robert Smith said:

Petitioner’s argument, rejected by the courts below, is that Penal Law
§ 400.00 (2) (f), which requires “proper cause” for the issuance of a license to carry a concealed pistol or revolver, violates the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Two constitutional questions are directly involved: (1) whether the Second Amendment limits the powers of the states, as well as of the federal government; and (2) whether a prohibition on carrying concealed weapons without a showing of proper cause is consistent with the Second Amendment. I make no comment on the merits of either issue, except to say that neither is insubstantial.

He went on to say that the first question was substantial enough that the US Supreme Court had accepted the McDonald case and the second question was undoubtedly substantial due to the Heller decision.

Judge Smith’s dissent in the matter was considered a relatively rare occurance. Joel Stashenko analyzed his dissent for law.com here and includes comments from other legal scholars.

UPDATE II: The full complaint in Kachalksy v. Cacace, U.S. Dist. Ct. S.D. NY, is here. The case has been assigned to Judge Cathy Seibel, an appointee of George W. Bush.

I have embedded the case filing below. It includes the case number and judge assignment on it.

Kachalsky Et Al v. Cacace Et Al – Complaint With Judge Assignment

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The Next Case: Bateman et al v. Perdue et al

June 29, 2010 by 2 Comments

Alan Gura’s next case has a name. The official title is Bateman et al v. Perdue et al, Case No. 5:10-cv-265, and it was filed yesterday with the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Western Division.

The named plaintiffs are Michael Bateman, Virgil Green, and Forrest Minges, Jr as well as Grass Roots North Carolina and the Second Amendment Foundations. They are seeking to overturn the North Carolina General Statue that forbids the carrying, possession, sale or purchase of firearms and ammunition during declared states of emergency.

Specifically, they are asking the U. S. District Court for:

An order permanently enjoining defendants, their officers, agents, servants,
employees, and all persons in active concert or participation with them who receive actual notice of the injunction, from enforcing N.C. Gen. Stat. §§ 14-288.7, 14-288.12(b)(4), 14-288.13(b), 14-288.14(a), and 14-288.15(d), forbidding the carrying, possession, sale or purchase of firearms and ammunition during declared states of emergency.

In February 2010, the City of King and Stokes County declared a state of emergency due to heavy snowfall and local power outages. The proclamation from the City of King forbade the sale or purchase of firearms and ammunition, as well as the possession of firearms and ammunition off an individual’s premises. If you had a North Carolina Concealed Handgun Permit, it didn’t matter as the state of emergency proclamation superceded it.

I have posted the entire complaint and other filings on Scribd. You can read the main filing here.

Bateman v Perdue 1-Main

UPDATE: Paul Valone, President of Grass Roots North Carolina and the Charlotte Gun Rights Examiner, has more on the background of the case in his column.

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Alan Gura’s Next Target – North Carolina’s Emergency Powers Gun Bans

June 29, 2010 by 2 Comments

I just found this on the Second Amendment Foundation’s website.

SAF SUES TO OVERTURN NORTH CAROLINA’S ‘EMERGENCY POWERS’ GUN BANS

The Second Amendment Foundation along with Grass Roots North Carolina and three individuals are suing to overturn the law in North Carolina that allowed the Town of King to impose a ban on possession and sales of firearms due to … lots of snow.

Having read the law and seen when it was adopted, I’ve always felt it was a racist reaction to the civil unrest on college campuses during the late 1960s. The General Assembly was especially interested in tamping down any civil unrest at the historically black colleges and universities. This was very true in my hometown of Greensboro where the authorities kept a much closer eye on historically black NC A&T State University than on Women’s College (now UNC-Greensboro).