New Year, New Threats: Deep-Pocketed Lawyers Rally to Push Gun-Control Agenda

Authors Current Events Jordan Michaels
Members of the Firearms Accountability Counsel Task Force include, left to right: Ira Feinberg, Hogan Lovells; Avery Gardiner, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence; Eric M. Ruben, Brennan Center for Justice; Chris Boehning, Paul, Weiss; Lucy McMillan, Arnold & Porter; Kaveri Vaid, Paul, Weiss; Adam Skaggs, Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence; Brad Karp, Paul, Weiss; Suzanne Novak, Hogan Lovells; and Jon Lowy, Brady Center. (Photo: Guerin Blask for The New York Times)

Members of the Firearms Accountability Counsel Task Force include, left to right: Ira Feinberg, Hogan Lovells; Avery Gardiner, Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence; Eric M. Ruben, Brennan Center for Justice; Chris Boehning, Paul, Weiss; Lucy McMillan, Arnold & Porter; Kaveri Vaid, Paul, Weiss; Adam Skaggs, Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence; Brad Karp, Paul, Weiss; Suzanne Novak, Hogan Lovells; and Jon Lowy, Brady Center. (Photo: Guerin Blask for The New York Times)

If you thought the gun control lobby would (finally) roll over and die after Donald Trump’s shocking victory on November 8, think again.

The New York Times reported last week that several big-money law firms have formed a coalition to oppose gun rights in states across the country. Together, they’re offering the gun control lobby tens of millions of dollars in free legal services and helping anti-gun organizations develop new strategies to revoke Second Amendment rights via lawsuits and regulations.

The anti-gun industry hasn’t been able secure the support of the American people, so they’ve been shifting their focus from Congress to state legislatures and ballot initiatives.

Now it seems they’re moving beyond multi-million-dollar ballot drives to “work around the edges of the law” and develop “new lines of attack” against gun manufacturers, sellers, and pro-gun legislation.

“We took a step back and thought about creative ways we could bring to light what the industry is doing,” said Robyn Thomas, the executive director of the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, who helped organize the coalition.

The coalition of lawyers—innocuously named the Firearms Accountability Counsel Task Force—has their sights set on state laws that require businesses, schools, and airports to allow firearms to be carried onto their premises. These laws are designed to eliminate gun-free zones that attract would-be mass shooters and allow people to defend themselves when businesses aren’t willing to hire security.

But the lawyers aren’t convinced. They see these laws as a potential infringement on property rights and a threat to the safety of customers and employees.

SEE ALSO: Armatix Plans 9mm ‘Smart Gun’ Over New (And Old) Concerns

Never mind the fact that a “no guns allowed” sign does nothing to keep actual criminals from bringing guns into businesses or the fact that states require businesses to meet all kinds of other safety regulations: guns are bad and scary, and responsible gun owners shouldn’t be allowed to carry them into a business.

The lawyers also plan to fight the pro-gun community over possible anti-trust violations. They claim gun companies banded together to “curb efforts by competitors” who wanted to develop “safety technology” like smart guns that only fire for the “registered owner.”

Never mind the fact that smart guns were a terrible idea from the beginning and no one in the gun community ever thought they were a good idea: President Obama supported the “smart gun” initiative, so gun monopolies must be to blame for their failure.

The worst part about the gun lobby’s new strategy is that the everyday American gun owner is more or less powerless to stop new litigation.

That’s why it’s crucial for gun owners to support legal organizations like the NRA and the Second Amendment Foundation. These groups have the ability to fight high-powered lawyers in court, and they’ve seen success all across the country.

The gun rights battlefield is changing, and gun owners need to change with it.

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  • Patriot December 18, 2016, 8:06 pm

    The “deep-pocketed lawyers” have very much in common with a president such as OBAMA or Billy Clinton. They definitely STINK and have a perverse view of the Constitution. If they should win a case, hopefully the case would be appealed to an Appellate Court and end up in the Supreme Court where there are some justices who support the actual meaning of the Second Amendment and the newly appointed justices who would rule against the asinine case supported by the “deep-pocketed lawyers”. Seeing Ginsberg leave the court would be equivalent to seeing Hillary leave the presidential race, a greatly appreciated event.

  • Mike Watkins December 17, 2016, 9:41 pm

    The “deep-pocketed” thing in the article title caught my attention. I’m thinking folks like us really need to do something about that. All my life I’ve been working hard for the man, and getting enough to survive and not a lot more. Lot of you in the same boat, I imagine

    Consider these “deep-pocketed” lawyers, and other rich idiots like Michael Bloomberg: they all seem to be just itching to spend their ample dollars ridding the world of such menaces as guns and over-sized soft drinks. So I think we should help them all we can. I’m going to be devoting a lot of thought over the next few weeks to coming up with a really wonderful-sounding campaign for getting rid of guns. The goal being to appeal to these rich lib idiots in such a way that they are willing to pay me a fat salary for conducting the campaign.

    Between you and me, of course, the campaign will be so full of errors, inconsistencies, and faulty logic it will have no effect, and we already have seen that lib gun haters can’t tell the difference.

    Wish me luck.

  • Tom Horn December 17, 2016, 7:07 am

    The only way to stop these cretins is through education of the public. Too many Americans are drinking their cool-aide. They are bombarded with anti-firearms messages every day through Hollywood, the liberal media, and social media.

    Example: the current movie: Miss Sloane: https://www.gunsamerica.com/blog/hollywood-takes-aim-gun-owners/

    We need a blockbuster movie like Michael Moore’s, Bowling For Columbine, that presents the truth about 2A, firearms, gun crime, etc. The NRA needs to get with the 21st Century and use social media more effectively. The, Armed Citizen, monthly article needs to go mainstream to educate Americans about good citizens protecting themselves, their families and our Country by exercising their 2A rights.

  • BRASS December 16, 2016, 7:53 pm

    Democrats and anti-gunners know that there is zero chance of any anti-gun legislation passing our national congress and being signed into law by PE Trump.
    So, in those states like Nevada where Democrats have regained control of the state legislatures and down ballot officers, there is a renewed effort to capitalize and pass gun control legislation. Nevada currently has a GOP Governor but his time to leave is coming and election could go to a Democrat giving them control over both the legislature and the state house.
    There are several other states that will have similar or other opportunities to press their anti-gun agenda, so 2nd Amendment supporters will need to be active in supporting and fighting against losses at the state level.

  • Larry December 16, 2016, 11:05 am

    It may be time to rise up against all these various anti American leftist nut cases including but not limited to the leftist anti-Constitutional lawyers, the leftist B & C grade actors trying to overthrow a perfectly fair presidential election, the various crazies in the MSM as well as the sinister America hating fools in the Dem party.

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