I was interviewed by Craig DeLuz on Coffee with Craig earlier in April regarding the lawsuit brought against Remington by certain Newtown families. It was done after the Connecticut Supreme Court found 4-3 in favor of letting the suit proceed despite the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act.
Coffee with Craig is a production of the Firearms Policy Coalition.
You can view the 15 minute interview below.
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When it comes to gun rights organizations, we need both the large and the small. The large like the NRA because its mere size gets politicians attention on Capitol Hill. The small because unlike the NRA they can be and are more agile.
A case in point on why we need the smaller and more agile gun rights organizations was just made yesterday by the Firearms Policy Coalition and their 503(c)(3) counterpart the Firearms Policy Foundation. Kids in school are being pressured by their peers, by their teachers, by their administrators, and by the media to participate in classroom walkouts in support of gun control. But what about the kids who support the Constitution and all of the Bill of Rights and what about the parents who just want their kids to get an education and not be politicized? Who stands up for them?
The Firearms Policy Coalition and the Firearms Policy Foundation have started a website called K12speech.com and a 21-page guide for parents and students meant to protect pro-gun students. I’ve read the guide and it is very well done. It contains sample letters and emails, documentation including relevant court rulings, tips on how to make FOIA requests, and instructions on how to document your interaction with school officials. You can download the guide here. There is also a legal action hotline and dedicated email address in order to seek help.
Here is the release announcing the program:
SACRAMENTO, CA (April 19, 2018) — Responding to recent student “walkout” events and demonstrations that advocate for more gun control, like the “March For Our Lives” political operation, civil rights advocacy organizations Firearms Policy Foundation (FPF) and Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) have published a new guide to protect pro-gun students and their rights. The 21-page publication, available for free download at www.k12speech.com, is entitled “K-12 Schools, Free Speech, and the Fundamental, Individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms: A Guide to How Students Can Use Their First Amendment Rights to Defend and Promote Second Amendment Rights.”
In addition to providing information and tools that parents and students can use to make sure they are not forced into participating in speech or demonstrations they disagree with, the guide contains materials that may help them plan counter-speech to gun control advocacy events or organize pro-gun rights demonstrations or expressive conduct. It also includes sample letters that parents could edit and use to notify schools of a student’s disagreement with a gun control event’s viewpoint, request information and policies, and help ensure that school officials respect the rights of all students. Additionally, there are sections on how one might acquire public records or information to investigate the use of government assets or funds – like school facilities, equipment, supplies, staff time, and contractors – for gun control advocacy and demonstrations, like walkouts, a log that students can use to take notes and document gun control events at schools, and some relevant provisions of the United States Constitution for reference.
“It is more important than ever to make sure that all viewpoints are equally represented and respected in schools,” said FPF Chairman and FPC President Brandon Combs. “Many students and parents we’ve spoken with are deeply concerned that schools are hostile to pro-gun rights views and speech. We hope our new guide helps students and parents exercise their rights and make informed decisions. And if their rights are violated, we definitely want to hear about it. Our legal team would be delighted to help make sure that public schools, staff, and teachers respect the rights of their pro-Second Amendment students.”
Craig DeLuz, an FPC spokesperson and 13-year member of a public school district’s board of trustees, explained that schools can’t support one viewpoint and suppress others. “Schools and teachers cannot be allowed to allow or support speech and viewpoints they agree with while suppressing or prohibiting peaceful, non-disruptive speech and viewpoints they disagree with. Our public schools must not be in the business of picking winners and losers in the context of constitutionally-protected free speech.”
If a student or parent believes they were discriminated against, threatened or disciplined for peacefully expressing their views, punished for refusing to participate in a gun control walkout or demonstration, or threatened with law enforcement action for their pro-gun speech, they can submit a report to the FPF/FPC Legal Action Hotline at www.firearmpolicy.org/hotline or by calling (855) 252-4510.
Craig DeLuz, the media spokesperson for FPC and FPF, does a regular video broadcast called Coffee with Craig. The episode below goes into detail about the K12speech.com project.
This effort may seem a little counter-revolutionary but it is what is needed to fight the corporate gun control industry and their “Red Guard” of David Hogg and Emma Gonzalez.
The California Department of Justice submitted a series of regulations relating to “assault weapon bullet button” laws to the Office of Administrative Law. They wanted these regulations to go into effect with no notice and no public comment. When Craig DeLuz of the Firearms Policy Coalition got wind of this he went to the DOJ’s office and asked to inspect these regulations. While this seems reasonable to most people, he was denied.
As a result of this denial, DeLuz, the Firearms Policy Coalition, and the CalGuns Foundation filed suit in California state court on Friday alleging a violation of both the California state constitution and the Public Records Act. Alinsky’s 4th rule for radicals says to make the opposition live up to its own book of rules and FOIA/Public Records Act laws are (or used to be) a darling of progressives.
From the FPC on the lawsuit:
SACRAMENTO, CA (June 30, 2017) — Today, Sacramento resident Craig DeLuz, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), and The Calguns Foundation (CGF) have announced a new legal action intended to ensure that the California Department of Justice (DOJ) cannot hide its proposed regulations from the public. The action was filed after DeLuz and two civil rights advocacy organizations sought access to DOJ regulations on so-called “assault weapon” firearms so that they could review them and inform the public, but were denied.
The petitioners are represented by Paul Nicholas Boylan, an attorney based in Davis specializing in records access and government transparency issues.
In May, the Department of Justice submitted to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) a set of regulations relating to the “Bullet Button Assault Weapons” laws that were passed and signed into law in 2016. Notably, the DOJ had submitted the regulations under the OAL’s “file & print” process, which means that the DOJ wanted the regulations to be put into law without any public notice or comment as would usually be required under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).
When that action was discovered, DeLuz went to the DOJ’s office and asked to inspect them so that he could let California gun owners know what they contained and pass information back to the groups’ legal counsel for review. But the Department turned him away at the door, claiming that the documents were “draft regulations” and “not available for public inspection” — effectively, keeping the regulations secret from 39 million Californians even though they could have become law.
“My clients recognize that the work the Department of Justice performs directly affects the rights of millions of people,” Boylan said. “The people of California have a constitutional right to examine how and why public agencies make decisions that impact other fundamental rights, and the DOJ is no exception.”
“If a record relates to the public’s business, then the public agency that holds the record must be provided to anyone who wants to see it. That’s the law, and the DOJ must follow it,” Boylan concluded.
“When the Department of Justice denied us access to their submitted regulations and told me that they were not available for public inspection, I was outraged and insulted,” said Craig DeLuz, FPC’s California lobbyist and a spokesperson for the organizations. “Those who claim to enforce the law should be expected to follow it.”
“The California Constitution and Public Records Act make it clear that people have a right to access and inspect information concerning the conduct of the people’s business,” said Brandon Combs, the president of FPC and executive director of CGF. “We know that the Department will have more firearm and ammunition regulations coming out over the coming months, and we will not allow them to use bad faith tactics to deny the people information about these important issues.”
To help inform law-abiding gun owners about the status of the “assault weapons” laws and regulations, Firearms Policy Coalition has established a Web site at BulletButtonBan.com where it posts news and information about the issue.
In this video, Craig DeLuz of the Firearms Policy Coalition speaks to the lawsuit just filed Friday against the Legislative Counsel of California on First Amendment grounds. This lawsuit is nicknamed the “Tyrant Registry Lawsuit” in honor of the blog post that is at the heart of it.
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