The National Rifle Association is pushing back against an official San Francisco declaration that labeled the controversial gun lobby group a “domestic terrorist organization.”
On Monday, the NRA sued the city of San Francisco and members of the city’s board of supervisors — both in their individual and professional capacities — for its passage of a recent resolution that called out the group for “propaganda” and vowed as a city to encourage businesses to sever ties with the powerful gun lobby.
In the suit, the NRA called the resolution unconstitutional and “far from original,” comparing the city’s “unlawful efforts to coerce businesses to cut ties with the NRA” to similar declarations passed in New York state and in Los Angeles.
“Courts have sustained First Amendment claims in both Los Angeles and New York. Regrettably, the court, too, must step in to instruct elected officials that freedom of speech means you cannot silence or punish those with whom you disagree,” the suit says, calling the resolution a “frivolous insult” that poses a “nonfrivolous constitutional threat.”
The San Francisco board of supervisors passed the resolution last week in an effort to substantially respond to the shooting attack at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in July, as well as the recent spate of mass shootings that have killed more than 50 people in the U.S. in the month of August alone.
In a statement posted to Twitter, NRA executive Wayne LaPierre said the suit should serve as a reminder to “politicians” that the NRA will “never stop fighting for our law-abiding members and their constitutional freedoms.”
Read @NRA CEO and EVP Wayne LaPierre’s statement on NRA lawsuit against San Francisco: (1/2) pic.twitter.com/Y3t1fAx1LE
— NRA (@NRA) September 10, 2019
Catherine Stefani, San Francisco’s District 2 supervisor, who penned the resolution did not immediately return TPM’s request for comment.
Read the NRA suit below:
