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Judge Dismisses Another NRA Lawsuit in Texas, Agrees with Brady Center

 

 

 

On January 19, 2012, a conservative federal judge in Lubbock, Texas agreed with the Brady Center’s Legal Action Project and dismissed the NRA’s challenge to a Texas law prohibiting teens and young adults 18-20 years old from carrying concealed weapons in public, in the case Jennings v. McCraw.

The Brady Center’s brief supported the law and cited studies showing that young persons under 21 often lack the same ability as adults to “govern impulsivity, judgment, planning for the future, and foresight of consequences.”

On September 29, 2011, the same federal judge agreed with another Brady Center brief and dismissed a different NRA case, Jennings v. ATF, challenging the federal Gun Control Act’s prohibition on licensed dealers selling handguns to people under 21. 

» Click here to read our press release in Jennings v. McCraw
» Click here to read our press release in Jennings v. ATF

 
The original plaintiff in both cases was 18-year-old James D'Cruz, pictured above, whose Facebook page was filled with violent rhetoric and images. 
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rejected the NRA Appeal

December 2011 UPDATE:

On December 15, 2011, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected the NRA's attempt to re-open its lawsuit against Pittsburgh's lost or stolen gun reporting rule.

The Brady Center has represented Pittsburgh since the case was filed and has beaten the NRA at every level of the Pennsylvania court system.

The NRA had asked the Court to reconsider its earlier decision to throw out the NRA's case.

This was the NRA's last chance to revive the case in the PA courts. The only remaining option is an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, but because this case involves the interpretation of state law, it's unlikely the Court would consider it.

Previously, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court had refused to overturn rulings by a trial court and the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court throwing out a National Rifle Association lawsuit that challenged Pittsburgh's ordinance requiring the reporting of lost or stolen guns. Lawyers from the Brady Center represented Pittsburgh pro bono.




Courts Nationwide Reaffirm Gun Laws After Supreme Court’s Second Amendment Rulings

In its June 2010 decision in McDonald v. City of Chicago, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment right recognized in District of Columbia v. Heller applies to the states, but the Court reaffirmed that the Second Amendment right allows for reasonable gun laws.

Although the Court only recognized a Second Amendment right for law-abiding persons to have a gun in the home for self-defense, the gun lobby and gun criminals have brought over 300 challenges to gun laws and prosecutions since Heller. The courts have almost universally rejected these attempts to broaden Heller's narrow holding. In a ruling on December 10, 2010 in Peruta v. County of San Diego, a federal judge dismissed a gun lobby lawsuit seeking to strike down California’s law restricting licensing to carry loaded, concealed handguns in public. The judge agreed with an amicus brief filed by the Brady Center rejecting that argument.

Other lawsuits, including in New York, Maryland, and Washington, D.C., claim that the Supreme Court protects a broad right to carry guns in public places.

» Click here to read the Brady Center’s brief
» Click here to read the Peruta opinion


The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed in McDonald v. City of Chicago its language that the Second Amendment right is not unlimited.