Earning Awards And Protecting Rights 40 Years And Counting

BELLEVUE, WA –-(Ammoland.com)- We are celebrating 40 years of protecting gun rights at the Second Amendment Foundation.

This anniversary year continues to be a success as we recently added another award for protecting gun rights as well as joined another lawsuit in order to protect Citizen’s gun rights.

In honor of our 40th Anniversary we are asking our dedicated Second Amendment Patriots for a forty dollar and forty cent donation. We are proud of what we have accomplished but know a lot of work remains and look forward to another forty years protecting our gun rights.

SAF’s latest award came from the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG) for its successful lawsuit against the City of Seattle over public records access.

We are extremely proud of this award, because it was unanimously approved by a diverse WCOG board of directors. It is gratifying when people who may not agree with us politically recognize the importance of holding government responsible for transparency. The public has a right to know how its money is spent and how it’s elected representatives and their staffs respond to people.

When government hides information from the public or is sloppy in providing information, citizens are the ultimate losers.

“The goal all along in our effort,” SAF Special Projects Director Philip Watson added, “was to find out about the process that went into this gun buyback. When it became obvious that the city, under former Mayor Mike McGinn, had not produced all the information we sought, there was only one course of action, and we took it.”

“Government must be held accountable when it fails in its responsibility,” SAF General Counsel Miko Tempski said. “If it takes a lawsuit to accomplish that, we are prepared. It should not have to come to that point.”

Our latest legal action came when SAF and Florida Carry, Inc. joined forces in a lawsuit against the City of Tallahassee for refusing to change an ordinance restricting the discharge of firearms in defiance of the state preemption statute.

We’re happy to partner with Florida Carry on this legal action. This is not the first time we have had to take a city to court for violating a state preemption law. Why municipal governments still don’t understand the concept of preemption is a mystery to us.

“Since 2011, Florida Carry has prompted the repeal of anti-gun ordinances and regulations in over 200 Florida jurisdictions, including municipalities, counties, colleges and state agencies,” noted Florida Carry Executive Director Sean Caranna.

The lawsuit contends that under the city’s ordinance, which criminalizes the discharge of firearms and airguns, there is no provision that carves out an exception for the lawful use of a firearm in self-defense. There was a chance for an easy fix earlier this year, but that motion was tabled.

Clearly, Tallahassee has way over-stepped its authority under state preemption. The Florida Legislature has exclusive domain over firearms regulation. When the law was passed, it nullified all existing, and future, city and county firearm ordinances and regulations.

Mayor Marks and his colleagues on the city commission knew all of this but they rejected an opportunity to bring the city into compliance. Their stubbornness really left us no choice but to join Florida Carry in this action.

The Second Amendment Foundation is a grassroots organization which means we are funded by the people whose rights we are trying to protect. It is not popular to contribute or stand united with pro-gun organizations.

We do not have big shot donors like the big anti-gun groups. You hard working, Second Amendment loving patriots keep our doors open and we appreciate everything you do for us.

We are excited about our forty year accomplishment but recognize we cannot skip a beat. Our sole mission is to protect the right to keep and bear arms and will not stop doing so.

Together, we can preserve the Constitutional rights our Founding Fathers intended our people to have forever.

Thank you. I know I can count on you.

Sincerely yours,

P.S. Remember, the anti-gunners are raising tens of thousands of dollars to steal our rights from us — we need your support now to help stop them dead in their tracks!

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.

Paid for by Second Amendment Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. Contributions are tax deductible. Copyright © 2014 Second Amendment Foundation, All Rights Reserved.