They can’t say they we’re warned. They ignored the Rule of Law and court precedence and now they get to pay the piper. Naperville and Highland Park were named in a federal court suit filed by the National Association for Gun Rights.
UPDATE: Here’s the lawsuit for Naperville. Ouch. Not only are they asking for reimbursement, they’re asking for damages.
NAGR and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners are no stranger to wins following Bruen. They won last month challenging local Colorado gun and magazine bans in four jurisdictions, and now they’ve turned those big guns on Naperville and Highland Park, among others in other federal court districts.
Here’s NAGR’s press release announcing the suits . . .
Today, The National Association for Gun Rights’ legal arm filed five lawsuits in four different federal appellate circuits to challenge multiple state and local “assault weapons” bans and standard-capacity magazine bans.
The cases were filed in First Circuit (Massachusetts), Second Circuit (Connecticut), Seventh Circuit (Highland Park and Naperville, Illinois), and the Ninth Circuit (Hawaii). Cases in the Tenth Circuit against the state of Colorado had previously been filed.
Local plaintiffs have been found in each state.
“States have been ignoring the Second Amendment and the Heller and McDonald decisions for far too long – and law-abiding gun owners are sick and tired of their unconstitutional antics which disarm millions of Americans,” said Dudley Brown, President of the National Association for Gun Rights. “In light of the Bruen decision, and the success we’ve had in suing localities in Colorado for their gun grabs, we’re going after every Federal Circuit Court which has upheld egregious firearms bans. They must immediately overturn their ‘assault weapons’ and magazine bans– and our suits argue just that.”
Ahead of the infamous Naperville vote to ban the sale of America’s favorite rifle, the AR-15 and the magazines that feed it, we contacted each and every member of the Naperville City Council with this communication:
Greetings Mayor Chirico and the Naperville City Council: First off, thank you for your willingness to step up and take a leadership role for your community. I realize it can be a thankless job more often than not. Right now, it’s probably a lot more than thankless.
I’ve watched as some members of your council have advocated for a ban on the sale of guns commonly used for self-defense here in America. Guns commonly used by poor families, women, people of color along with other disadvantaged groups to protect themselves and their loved ones from criminal attack.
Gun control is racist, classist and sexist. Gun control disarms victims of crime, not the criminals who commit it.
If you pass this proposed ordinance, the wealthy in your community will barely notice. After all, what’s a short trip up or down an Interstate on a sunny afternoon? The poorer members of the community, on the other hand, will certainly notice.
Let me introduce myself. I’m not a resident, but I’ve visited and shopped in your community as recently as this past weekend. I do currently serve as the Executive Director of Guns Save Life, Inc. You may recall that we’re the people who sued to block Deerfield’s amendment of a firearms ordinance to ban common semi-auto firearms and the magazines that feed them. As you should know, we won on the magazines, and the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Deerfield could keep their new local ban on the guns.
That was before the US Supreme Court handed down the Bruen decision.
I think it fair to say that we at Guns Save Life will be watching your actions on this proposal. Obviously we oppose it.
You may think Perkins and Coie will defend you at no charge should we or others challenge an ordinance should you adopt it. They may. However, if Guns Save Life files a civil action and we win, Perkins and Coie won’t pay our legal bills. If we prevail, Naperville likely will.
The same goes for every other suit filed. Even if a court consolidates them into a single action, you are still potentially on the hook for our legal costs should we prevail along with the other plaintiffs. As you can see from the attached photo from just one of a few checks Chicago has written to our friends at the Second Amendment Foundation, those can become quite substantial. And even pre-Bruen, there’s case law out there that’s going to make a legal challenge to this proposed ordinance pretty easy.
But that will just be the tip of the iceberg. While some of your council members might bask in the glow of virtue signalling today by voting for this measure, Guns Save Life will be there to make sure your share (bask?) in the humiliation of defeat down the road when you lose in court.
What’s more, should you appeal, we’ll be there to rub your noses in the humiliation of defeat over and over again.
What do you want your legacy to be?
That’s entirely up to you at this point.
Don’t diminish the quality of life in your community for the sake of mindless virtue signalling. To say nothing of the jobs lost, tax revenue driven out of town, and potentially increased crime against your most vulnerable residents.
Do the right thing here. Be known for positive, tangible changes you’ve brought to the community. Not for stepping into a legal morass that costs your taxpayers tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
John
This morning, I shared this with them. I gave them a way out. Not that they would ever take advantage of it.
I emailed you in the days ahead of your shameful vote to ban the sales of America’s favorite rifle, the AR-15, and the magazines that feed it.
I warned you that you risked big dollar legal bills defending the indefensible in light of the Bruen decision at the US Supreme Court.
For those of you who ignored my written communication (including the member who has an automated reply which claims she read and contemplated the email about 3 minutes after I sent it), I’ve appended it at the bottom of this message.
By an 8-1 margin, you ignored court precedence and the rule of law to virtue signal on guns. “At least we did something,” your squeaky little voices, full of smug condescension, said to your constituents and the media.
Now you get to pay the piper. I see our allies filed suit in federal court against your city.
There is a way out for you though, to put your constituents ahead of your own self-serving virtue signalling. It’s rather simple, actually.
Vote to rescind your ham-handed virtue signalling stunt banning the sales of these incredibly popular self-defense firearms and their magazines.
Yeah, you’re going to be humiliated. Maybe even humbled. But you’ll be saving your residents from hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills. No, not for Naperville’s lawyers, but for our side’s lawyers.
I doubt you’ll heed my advice. Hubris is a tough thing to overcome. Besides, it’s largely someone else’s money, right?
Ordinarily I’d wish you good luck with a healthy dose of sarcasm. But you don’t even deserve that.
Anyway, let the real fun begin. You earned it. Enjoy.
John
Giggity.