San Francisco slapped with gun lawsuit
By: Tamara Barak Aparton
Examiner Staff Writer
May 19, 2009
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| A federal lawsuit alleges that a City law requiring guns to be locked up or kept disabled interferes with citizens' right to defend their families. (Getty Images) |
SAN FRANCISCO — The City is being sued by gun owners and gun-advocacy groups because of a local law that says firearms have to be locked up or kept disabled.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court Friday afternoon, challenges a local restriction that forces handgun owners to either store their guns in a locked container or disable them with trigger locks. Mayor Gavin Newsom signed the law into effect in August 2007.
National Rifle Association attorney Chuck Michel, who filed the case, said the locking restriction interferes with citizens’ rights to immediately defend their families.
Plaintiffs include a group of San Francisco gun owners, retired police officers and the NRA.
“These are all people who recognize the right to self-defense is a fundamental civil right that needs to be protected as well,” Michel said.
The suit also tackles The City’s ban on the sale of fragmenting bullets, which break apart upon impact, and names Newsom and police Chief Heather Fong.
Newsom spokesman Nathan Ballard said locking up one’s guns is a matter of common sense.
“If even one life can be saved by this sensible law, it’s worth it,” he said.
San Francisco has tried in the past to restrict gun ownership, but with little success. Proposition H, a wide-reaching ban on gun sales and possession that passed with 58 percent of the vote in 2005, was knocked down by the state Supreme Court last year.
Matt Dorsey, spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera, said Friday’s lawsuit is one of many filed by the NRA against cities in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Heller decision, a landmark 2008 case that said the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to possess a firearm for private use.
“The NRA has been trolling for cases throughout the country to push the limits of the Second Amendment under [Chief Justice John G.] Roberts’ court,” Dorsey said. “Frankly, this lawsuit has less to do with San Francisco law than with writing new case law nationwide.”
Dorsey said he does not believe the Heller ruling will force San Francisco to change its gun-control provisions.
The lawsuit also challenges a 1938 San Francisco law that prohibits anyone from discharging a firearm within city limits.
“We’re not aware of that ever having been applied and don’t believe it would apply to lawful self-defense,” Dorsey said.
tbarak@sfexaminer.com
