FAIRFAX, VA - Yesterday's United States Supreme Court ruling in District of Columbia vs. Heller confirmed what the National Rifle Association has been saying for 137 years: the Second Amendment does indeed protect a fundamental individual right to keep and bear arms. Today, using the Heller decision as the basis for the challenge, the NRA filed a civil rights lawsuit to confirm that the Second Amendment also restricts state and local governments from infringing on the right to keep and bear arms.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court against the City of San Francisco and the San Francisco Public Housing Authority to invalidate the City's ordinance and lease provision that bans the possession of firearms in public housing.
The lawsuit will serve to establish the incorporation doctrine in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, including California, and invalidate the existing ban on firearms in public housing in San Francisco in the process.
"This suit seeks to establish the parameters of the Second Amendment's protections, and to establish that the Second Amendment restricts state and local governments from infringing on any law-abiding man or woman’s right to self-defense," said Chris W. Cox, NRA's chief lobbyist. "NRA has always been committed to any effort that advances the cause of freedom."
The NRA is joined in this lawsuit by the California Rifle and Pistol Association and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
To read the complaint, please click here.