This report gives gun owners the latest information on Second Amendment cases filed or supported by NRA-ILA.
http://www.nraila.org/2Alitigation/
http://www.nraila.org/2Alitigation/
NRA-ILA’s goal in every case we consider is to strategically advance the rights of gun owners, while not creating bad precedent.
Fortunately for Chicago residents, the shooting range ban was struck down on July 6 in Ezell -- a case limited only to the shooting range issue. In its opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that “The right to possess firearms for protection implies a corresponding right to acquire and maintain proficiency in their use,” and noted that “It's hard to imagine anyone suggesting that Chicago may prohibit the exercise of a free speech or religious-liberty right within its borders on the rationale that those rights may be freely enjoyed in the suburbs. That sort of argument should be no less unimaginable in the Second Amendment context.”
While Ezell was not NRA-ILA’s case, our more comprehensive challenge in Benson continues. Chicago’s range prohibition was only one way in which the city is continuing to thumb its nose at the U.S. Supreme Court and the rights of law-abiding gun owners. As noted earlier, Chicago also bans gun possession not only outside the home, but in parts of the home such as garages, porches and front steps; bans nearly all firearm transfers and on the operation of gun stores; and restricts each Chicago license holder to keep only one “assembled and operable” firearm within the home. This case is in discovery through October, in which both sides have the opportunity to demand documents and take statements from opponents.
I understand it's already being cited in some lower court cases. There's a church carry case in Georgia working its way through the system, and the plaintiffs recently sent a letter to the 11th Circuit advising them of Ezell's guideline for heightened scrutiny.Ezell has applications in many of the current cases. It is the only opinion that has followed the explicit instructions of the Heller Court.