Friday, January 21, 2011

Local Groups Drive Gun Rights Litigation - Not The NRA

The left wing press always gets this wrong: the NRA is the source of all evil pro-gun developments in the United States. The reality is that the NRA, while an extremely effective lobbying and legislative organization, its record for litigation is thin, at best. Most of the recent landmark litigation concerning gun rights (District of Columbia v. Heller, McDonald v. City of Chicago) are the result of the efforts of grass-roots organizations like the Second Amendment Foundation, the Calguns Foundation, and the Illinois State Rifle Association. These organization, and those like them in other states, have been doing the heavy lifting over the last ten years ot so to further gun rights in the United States.

In the past on this blog I have attempted to follow the various cases that are in progress, but in the aftermath of Heller, so many cases were filed that it overwhelmed my capacity to monitor the progress and post it to Left Coast Conservative. Fortunately, this is no longer necessary. The Calguns Foundation has a wonderful web page that not only lists the current status of pending litigation, but also established case law and Supreme Court decisions, and even has a primer describing how the federal courts work. Everyone who has an interest in the current status of gun rights litigation should consult this page often because it is updated regularly.

Once again, the grass-roots organizations are carrying the heavy load to further gun rights by educating gun owners. While I do not want to belittle the efforts of the NRA, they is not the whole story. And when one realizes the extent of different groups that promote gun rights, I cannot help but be optimistic.

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