BELLEVUE, WA – The Trump administration has filed a federal lawsuit against the District of Columbia, challenging the city’s continuing effort, despite Supreme Court rulings, to restrict and infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens, and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is cheering the action.

“We are proud to see the Trump administration stand up for the constitutional and civil rights of Americans who want to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “This lawsuit shows the night and day difference between this administration and the previous one that attacked the right to keep and Bear arms at every turn.”

The lawsuit, filed by Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, head of the Civil Rights Division, names the District of Columbia and Metropolitan Police Chief Pamela Smith, in her official capacity, as defendants. In their complaint, the administration states the District “denies law-abiding citizens the ability to register a wide variety of commonly used semi-automatic firearms, such as the Colt AR-15 series rifles, which is among the most popular of firearms in America, and a variety of other semi-automatic rifles and pistols that are in common use.”

“The significance of the administration’s action here cannot be over-stated,” Gottlieb observed. “The Trump administration is taking the fight to restore Second Amendment rights literally to the belly of the beast. This lawsuit sends a message to every other anti-gun jurisdiction that the days of dancing around, or completely ignoring, Supreme Court rulings in Heller, McDonald and Bruen have come to an end.”

As the Justice Department’s lawsuit clearly notes, “D.C’s current semi-automatic firearms prohibition that bans many commonly used pistols, rifles or shotguns is based on little more than cosmetics, appearance, or the ability to attach accessories, and fails to take into account whether the prohibited weapon is “in common use today” or that law-abiding citizens may use these weapons for lawful purposes protected by the Second Amendment.

“This case concerns much more than dormant, bad law,” the complaint adds. “It concerns the very real requirement that the DC Defendants have acted and are continuing to act in blatant disregard to our Constitution and the rulings of our Nation’s highest court.”

<p>The post U.S. SUES DIST. OF COLUMBIA OVER RESTRICTIVE GUN CONROL; CCRKBA CHEERS first appeared on Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.</p>

BELLEVUE, WA – Liberal Congressional hopeful Jack Schlossberg—grandson to President John F. Kennedy—wants to make political hay by demanding that states with so-called “weak gun laws” should be penalized because guns from those states end up used in crimes in New York, but the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says he has it backwards.

Schlossberg is campaigning to succeed Democrat Jerrold Nadler, longtime representative from New York’s 12th District, who is retiring and will not run in 2026. Schlossberg made headlines in the New York Post by declaring, “There’s an illegal flow of guns into states across the country from a couple states with weaker gun laws. We should at least have a penalty to make sure that we can fund enforcement of this common sense idea.”

However, CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb countered, “How about penalizing New York for all the criminals they release on cashless bail, who then commit crimes in other states?”

The veteran gun rights advocate said New York doesn’t have a “gun  problem, it’s got a criminal justice problem.”

Earlier this year, President Trump signed an executive order directing Attorney General Pam Bondi to submit a list of states and local jurisdictions  which “substantially eliminated cash bail as a potential condition of pretrial release from custody for crimes that pose a clear threat to public safety and order, including offenses involving violent, sexual, or indecent acts, or burglary, looting, or vandalism.”

“Schlossberg is pandering to far-left Democrats with his gun control idea,” Gottlieb observed, “rather than acknowledge it is liberal Democrat policies which have allowed repeat offenders to roam the streets of America, committing crimes and bringing misery to honest people, many of whom have purchased firearms to protect themselves from recidivist criminals who should be doing time in Empire State jails and prisons.

“New York’s criminal justice system is a train wreck,” he added, “and everybody knows it. While prosecutors and courts go light on repeat offenders, politicians in Albany and New York City go hard on law-abiding citizens for exercising their Second Amendment rights. It’s time to hold the New York political establishment accountable for the trouble it causes, instead of penalizing states which recognize the rights of law-abiding citizens.

“President Kennedy, who was Schlossberg’s grandfather and an NRA member, is probably shaking his head and rolling his eyes in Heaven, “ Gottlieb concluded.

<p>The post CCRKBA: PENALIZE N.Y. FOR FREEING CRIMINALS WHO OFFEND IN OTHER STATES first appeared on Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.</p>

BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is cheering the 2-1 ruling by a panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals which overturned the gun law conviction of a Mississippi man who had earlier been placed on five years’ probation for failing to pay child support. The case is known as U.S. v. Cockerham.

Edward Cockerham had pled guilty for failing to pay child support, in violation of Mississippi law, which could have resulted in a five-year prison term. But Cockerham was sentenced to five years of probation, and he eventually repaid his child support and was released from probation. But federal law strips Second Amendment rights from anyone convicted of a crime for which the sentence could be more than one year behind bars.

As noted in the opinion authored by Judge James Ho, a Donald Trump appointee, “So there’s no historical justification to disarm him at that moment — never mind for the rest of his life.”

Judge Ho was joined by Judge Cory Wilson, another Trump appointee, while Judge Stephen Higginson, a Barack Obama appointee, dissented.

“Aside from underscoring the importance of who serves as president to fill federal judicial vacancies,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb observed, “the court’s opinion in this case clearly defines common sense, and serves justice. Mr. Cockerham was not convicted of a violent felony. He didn’t harm anyone. He didn’t pay child support, and at the time of his arrest for having a gun under the seat of a car he was driving, he had squared his account and had actually been released from probation.

“Cockerham never spent a day behind bars for his original conviction,” Gottlieb noted. “Yet, he was deprived of his rights as if he had committed some heinous crime. Being stripped of a fundamental right for non-payment of what amounts to a financial obligation is legal overreach in the extreme. We’re delighted Judge Ho determined Cockerham’s conviction violates the Second Amendment, and that the conviction is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinion.”

<p>The post CCRKBA CHEERS 5TH CIRCUIT PANEL’S RULING IN GUN RIGHTS CASE first appeared on Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.</p>