Maine: City of Portland Illegally Classifies Gun Shops as “Non-Essential”
Friday, April 17, 2020
Our Second Amendment rights are being threatened. The City of Portland needs to hear from you now!
In response to COVID-19, the Portland Mayor and City Council adopted Order No. 156-19/20 on April 14th, which replaced the list of essential businesses previously authorized by the city. The order stated that "Gun shops shall not be considered an essential business or service within the City of Portland."
Not only does this order directly conflict with the new list of essential businesses published on April 3rd by the Mills administration, but it blatantly conflicts with Maine’s preemption law. State preemption prevents local governments from enacting their gun control ordinances and creating a confusing patchwork of local laws. Law-abiding citizens should enjoy the same rights, regardless of where they reside. Maine statutes have no exception for local government acting in an emergency – which means the City of Portland is blatantly violating the state preemption law by classifying gun shops as non-essential businesses and ordering them to close under their new order.
Please act now and call on Portland Mayor Kate Snyder and the Portland City Council to correct this egregious error and make firearm dealers essential businesses!
It is unfortunate that in these uncertain times, an elected official would limit the ability of law-abiding citizens to exercise our inherent right to self-defense. Firearm dealers are essential to exercising this right!
This is breaking and developing news, and as more details become available, we will update NRA members further. Please stay tuned to www.nraila.org/coronavirus.
Some elections are won and lost on narrow grounds. But on many of the most important issues of the day, Donald Trump’s policies promise not just to be different from, but the opposite of, Joe ...
Last week, we reported that an unnamed ATF official, speaking for the agency’s Firearms Industry Programs Branch (FIPB), counseled a gun owner via ATF’s official email that ATF considers all pistols equipped with stabilizing braces ...
In recent years, the United Kingdom has served as a cautionary tale for what can happen when citizens don’t adequately safeguard individual rights - most notably, the right to free speech and the right to ...
This coming Tuesday is going to be a critical day for law-abiding gun owners across Washington, with three separate hearings scheduled to review anti-gun legislation.
On January 17, the NRA joined the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation and Safari Club International in filing a lawsuit against the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) over its near prohibition on recreational target shooting on ...
Yesterday, NRA filed an amicus brief supporting firearm manufacturers in a case where the plaintiffs allege that the manufacturers’ pro-Second Amendment social media posts caused a third party to commit a horrific public shooting.
Dear NRA Member: U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) has reintroduced the Constitutional Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act (H.R. 38). Representative Hudson, the longstanding champion of this legislation, along with more than 120 of his colleagues have ...
It’s really just good news to report that Joe Biden’s director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Steven Dettelbach, has announced his resignation.
The California Department of Justice announced proposed rulemaking on Carry Concealed Weapons License regulations, including the qualifications required to apply for a license and to be a CCW DOJ Certified Instructor. This package of proposed ...
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.