Appeals Court Upholds Second Amendment Foundation Victory In Lawsuit V. Seattle Parks Gun Ban
BELLEVUE, WA –-(Ammoland.com)- The Washington State Court of Appeals for Division 1 today unanimously upheld a 2010 King County Superior Court ruling against the City of Seattle’s ban on firearms in city parks in a lawsuit originally brought by the Second Amendment Foundation, other gun rights groups and five individual plaintiffs.
SAF Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said he had always been confident that the Appeals Court would rule “in favor of the law and against the attempt by Seattle to dance around it.”
“We told former Mayor Greg Nickels he was wrong,” Gottlieb said, “and we have reminded the city under Mayor Mike McGinn that it was wrong, and now the Appeals Court has confirmed our position.”
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.
Writing for the Court, Presiding Chief Judge Ann Schindler noted, “We hold that under the plain language of RCW 9.41.290 and RCW 9.41.300, the city’s 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.”
“This is not only a victory for the citizens of Washington State,” he said, “but 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.
“The ruling is also an affirmation of Judge Catherine Shaffer’s original trial court ruling last year,” he continued. “She had the foresight to include observations about our state constitutional right to bear arms but also the Second Amendment.
“Now that the Second Amendment has been incorporated to the states through our victory in McDonald v. City of Chicago,” Gottlieb concluded, “it 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.”
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. In addition to the landmark McDonald v. Chicago Supreme Court Case, SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; New Orleans; Chicago and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and numerous amicus briefs holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.
The SAF isn't against open carry in just richards. They filed their appeal brief in kachalsky which says the same thing. to anyone who reads these briefs it is readily apparent that the SAf and alan gura are not as pro gun as they seem. In fact I would agree with charles that they are anti-gun due to their extreme stance against the open carry of guns.
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) Attorney in the California Federal CCW lawsuit, Richards v Prieto, had this to say: "States may ban openly carried firearms" "Plaintiffs have no issue with requiring a license to carry a loaded firearm, nor do Plaintiffs object to prohibitions on the open carrying of firearms, loaded or unloaded." "The people of California have spoken: they generally do not want to see openly-carried handguns, but they will accept the licensing of concealed handgun carrying. This is a valid choice under the Second Amendment." The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence also wants to ban openly carried… Read more »