S.C.O.P.E.

Legal Update
January 2020

Cuomo Proposes Barring Those with Serious Misdemeanor Out-of-State

Offenses from Gun Licenses

People convicted of serious misdemeanor crimes in other states should not

be allowed to receive a gun license in New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo
proposed on Sunday as he began to roll out his 2020 agenda.
The proposal would cover people convicted of misdemeanors in other
states that are deemed to be “serious offenses” like domestic violence,
forcible torching and other sex offenses.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2019/12/15/cuomo-
proposal-would-bar-those-with-serious-misdemeanor-out-of-state-offenses-
from-gun-licenses

The Democratic state senator (Senator Parker) who tweeted a GOP staffer
should kill themself, sponsors bill to require social media search of anyone
applying for gun permit or purchasing a long gun.

Senate Bill S1413

2019-2020 Legislative Session
Relates to requiring social media reviews prior to the approval of an
application for a license to carry or possess a pistol or revolver or to
purchase a rifle or shotgun

https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2019/s1413
https://twitter.com/WGRZ_SteveBrown/status/1203439792131919872?s=20

NRA Secures New Documents in Bid to Revive Selective Enforcement

Claims Against NY Officials

The National Rifle Association says it’s obtained new information that
proves state officials in New York acted deliberately, and unlawfully, to
strangle the gun lobby group of its financial resources because of its
positions on gun control measures.

New documents obtained by the NRA show the state singled out its
insurance products for sanctions while ignoring other policies with similar
violations, the group’s attorneys said.
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Evidence from those documents was included in a new version of the NRA’s
lawsuit against Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the state Department of Financial
Services and Maria Vullo, the former superintendent of that agency. The
lawsuit was initially brought last year.

https://www.law.com/newyorklawjournal/2019/12/23/nra-secures-new-
documents-in-bid-to-revive-selective-enforcement-claims-against-ny-officials/

Supreme Court heard arguments in first major gun case in a decade

The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday on a now-rescinded New

York City handgun ordinance – the first major gun rights case the high
court has taken up in nearly a decade – but some justices questioned
whether there is even a ruling to be made.

The court agreed in January to hear a challenge to a ban that prevented

licensed owners from taking their locked and loaded handguns outside the
city’s limits to firing ranges or second homes in the state.

The city removed the restrictions in July but the court agreed to proceed
with the arguments anyway, raising the possibility that the 5-4
conservative majority on the court could expand gun rights for the first
time since 2010.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked the city’s lawyers whether they could
guarantee that the NYPD would not deny issuing gun licenses to people
who violated the old law.

Richard Dearing, the city’s lawyer, said New York would not prosecute
anyone based on past infractions.

Conservative Judges Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito also expressed

interest in finding ways to rule on the case.

But the four justices in the liberal wing of the court appeared ready to
dismiss the case as moot.

The Supreme Court is expected to announce its decision in late June.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/02/supreme-court-to-hear-arguments-in-first-
major-gun-case-in-a-decade/
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Will SCOTUS moot its big 2nd Amendment case? An analysis of oral
arguments

There are three ways that the case can move forward. First, the case could
be considered not to be moot by at least five Justices, who would then rule
on the merits of the case and issue a controlling opinion on the Second
Amendment. This seems the least likely outcome.

Second, the Justices could debate mootness, take a few months, and issue
a full opinion detailing why the case is moot. Likely, this opinion would
come out near the summer of 2020.

Third, the Court could dismiss the case as improvidently granted. This
approach presents an upside for those of us that are waiting for the
Supreme Court to finally address the non-compliance of the lower courts
to Heller and McDonald.

If the Court were to dismiss the case as improvidently granted, that

decision would be issued faster. This could leave the Court with time to
grant review of one of the many other pending Second Amendment cases
before the Court — cases that don’t suffer from similar procedural issues.
It would also give the Court time to hear argument before the end of its
2019-2020 term.

This outcome would offer the most positive way forward, while avoiding
the biggest issue of proceeding with and deciding this case — legitimacy.
If the Supreme Court moves forward and decides this case on the merits,
it will certainly be attacked as illegitimately deciding a moot case simply
for the “political” motive of rendering a Second Amendment decision.

Overall, a number of the Justices clearly expressed a willingness, if not a

need, for the Supreme Court to make a decision on a Second Amendment
case. Even if the Court determines that New York State Rifle & Pistol
Association v. City of New York is moot, there are a number of other Second
Amendment cases pending that the Court ought to address in the near
future.

https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/12/will-scotus-moot-its-big-2nd-
amendment-case-an-analysis-of-oral-arguments/

More Gun Cases Waiting in High Court Wings if NY Dispute Flops

The first gun rights case at the U.S. Supreme Court in a decade looks like
it might get tossed on a procedural hiccup, but questions raised at
argument Dec. 2 about the heightened standard of scrutiny that gun rights
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advocates would like to see for gun regulations preview what the court’s
next Second Amendment case could look like.

By taking an off ramp in the current case, the justices could delay putting
the court in the middle of a highly charged political issue until after the
2020 elections...But the court wouldn’t have to wait long to revisit gun
rights.

It “seems likely the Court will take up another Second Amendment case
next term, regardless of what happens” in the current case on a repealed
New York City gun control law, said Second Amendment scholar Adam
Winkler of the University of California, Los Angeles.
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/more-gun-cases-waiting-in-
high-court-wings-if-ny-dispute-flops

21 State Attorneys General Ask Supreme Court to Void Maryland Gun Law

A coalition of 21 state attorneys general is asking the Supreme Court to strike

down a Maryland law that denies concealed carry permits unless applicants can
convince local officials they have a “good and substantial reason” to be granted
one by local authorities.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, and the other
state officials filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court Dec. 18 in
a case cited as Malpasso v. Pallozzi. Morrisey and the others want to expand the
scope of protection afforded to gun-ownership rights after the high court ruled
in District of Columbia v. Heller (2010), that the right to possess a firearm is an
individual right, and in McDonald v. Chicago (2012), that the right of an
individual to “keep and bear arms” applies to the states.

Apart from West Virginia, the other states that participated in the brief are
Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio,
Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, and Utah.

The question former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement, a veteran of Second
Amendment battles, put before the court in the petition for certiorari filed Sept.
26, is, “Whether the Second Amendment allows the government to prohibit
typical, law-abiding citizens from carrying handguns outside the home for self
defense in any manner.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/21-state-attorneys-general-ask-supreme-
court-to-void-maryland-gun-law_3184841.html
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4 of 10 Democrats back gun confiscation

The survey was conducted online of 443 likely Democratic primary voters.
Based on a confidence interval of 95%, the margin of error for the poll of
443 is plus or minus 4.7 percentage points.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/4-of-10-
democrats-back-gun-confiscation-reparations-open-borders-unlimited-
abortions

In Gun Control Push, Bloomberg Calls for National Firearm License

The measures suggested by Bloomberg also include stricter background

checks, raising the minimum age for gun purchases to 21, safe-storage
requirements, and the repeal of federal laws that protect gun makers from
lawsuits.

https://ijr.com/in-gun-control-push-bloomberg-calls-for-national-firearm-
licenses/

Editorial: Trump Should Reconsider $25 Million To NIH For Gun Control
Research

For 23 years, gun control advocates have pressed to have the federal
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dip its beak into the study of
gun violence. Thanks to Democratic pressure and Republican
acquiescence, they now will have their way. Tucked into the nearly $1.4
trillion spending bill signed by the president on Friday, is $25 million for
the CDC and its sister agency, the National Institutes of Health, to study
gun violence and safety.

Dr. Mark Rosenberg, who formerly headed the National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control (NCIPC) at the CDC, has long advocated a scorched
earth policy when it comes to gun control. In 1994, for example, Rosenberg
vowed, “We need to revolutionize the way we look at guns, like we did with
cigarettes … dirty, deadly and banned.” Almost gleefully, he was quoted
last week in USA TODAY, proclaiming this latest move returning CDC and
NIH to the firearms policy arena, will “unlock a vein of pure gold” for the
movement.
Rosenberg’s delight at opening the federal spending spigot for gun policy
research at CDC was echoed by John Feinblatt, a long-time associate of
former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Feinblatt, who heads the
gun control nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety that since 2013 has been
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one of Bloomberg’s signature gun control initiatives, declared the new
funding to be an “important victory” for the movement….

As anyone familiar with the ingenuity of federal bureaucrats with a budget

and a politically-driven agenda knows, gun control advocates now will do
whatever is necessary to make sure the money keeps rolling in for them to
research, study and fund programs the result of which will be control of
guns, without actually using the term “gun control.”

https://dailycaller.com/2019/12/23/barr-trump-gun-control/

Bill Would Roll Back Prohibition-Era Gun Rules

Rep. Roger Marshall (R–Kan.) thinks short-barreled rifles are

overregulated, and he's looking to change that.

On Tuesday, Marshall introduced the Home Defense and Competitive

Shooting Act of 2019. This would change provisions of the National
Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) that put extra restrictions on the ownership of
short-barreled rifles—that is, rifles* with a barrel shorter than 16″ in
length or that have a total length of less than 26″.

The NFA requires owners of short-barreled rifles to register them with the
federal government; they must also pay a one-time $200 excise tax per
gun. If Marshall's bill becomes law, these extra requirements would
disappear; short-barreled rifles would be regulated under the same rules
as semiautomatic rifles.

The legislation would also order the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms
and Explosives to destroy all current short-barreled rifle registration
records within 365 days of the law's enactment. Information about those
who already own these weapons would thus be erased from the federal
database.

The NFA is the oldest federal gun law on the books, signed in 1934 by
then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, primarily in response to
Prohibition-era gangster violence. The law included these restrictions on
short-barreled rifles because they were thought to be criminals' weapons
of choice, due to their concealability and their popularity among gang
members.

Today, Marshall notes, short-barreled rifles are "commonly used for

hunting, personal defense, and competitive shooting."

https://reason.com/2019/12/06/bill-would-roll-back-prohibition-era-gun-
rules/
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Myth busted: Campus carry never caused that increase in violence liberals
predicted

When a reporter reached out to numerous universities that permit campus

carry, “all of the schools that responded confirmed that they have seen no
uptick in violence since their respective policies were put in place.”
Responding colleges included Emporia State University, Dixie State
University, and Valdosta State University. Separately, the Texas Tribune
has reported that after the Lone Star State implemented campus carry at
four-year colleges state-wide, it resulted in “no sharp increase in violence
or intimidation,” and in fact, the following year was “quiet” and
“uneventful.”

These are just a few examples, but even studies cited favorably by gun
control advocates admit that “results certainly do not prove that campus
carry causes more crime.” Essentially, it's now clear that conservatives
and libertarians had this one right. Allowing American adults aged 18 to
22 to exercise their Second Amendment rights on public college campuses
is a no-brainer, as there are few rights more fundamental than the right
to self-defense. Plus, the inconsistent nature of current “gun-free campus”
rules already makes little sense.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/myth-busted-campus-carry-
never-caused-that-increase-in-gun-violence-liberals-predicted

FBI posts big Black Friday gun check numbers; second-largest single day in
program history

In all, the bureau posted 202,465 checks Friday, an 11% increase from
last year and falling just short of the single-day record: 203,086 in 2017.
While background checks, required for purchases at federally licensed
firearm dealers, are not a measure of actual gun sales, the National Instant
Criminal Background Check System is a way to gauge market demand.
The number of firearms sold Friday is likely higher because multiple
firearms can be included in one transaction by a single buyer.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/12/01/fbi-posts-near-
record-black-friday-gun-check-numbers/4346609002/

Virginia’s Second Amendment Sanctuaries: An Update

For starters, the sanctuaries have spread dramatically. They’re up to 93
jurisdictions — covering roughly 40 percent of the population, by my quick
spreadsheet tally. That’s huge, though the biggest victory, in Prince
William County, is likely to be overturned when the county board flips to
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the Democrats, and some of these places have passed vague resolutions
in support of the Constitution rather than the more aggressive language
proposed by the Virginia Citizens Defense League.

these resolutions have limited legal effect; local governments are basically
subordinate to state governments. But defiance like this can put political
pressure on moderate Democrats — and, failing that, can force the state
government to either (A) take drastic action to stamp out resistance or (B)
give up and let these places refuse to enforce new gun laws, possibly
ramping up state-police activity there as a replacement.

On the politics, it’s worth noting that the state Democrats have already
caved on confiscating “assault weapons,” modifying a bill so that it would
still ban sales going forward but would require current owners to register
their guns rather than turning them in.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/virginias-second-amendment-
sanctuaries-an-update/

Virginia sheriff vows to deputize residents if state gun control legislation

passes

Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins made the vow during a Board of
Supervisors meeting last week in which the panel unanimously agreed to
declare the county a Second Amendment Constitutional County.

“Every Sheriff and Commonwealth Attorney in Virginia will see the

consequences if our General Assembly passes further unnecessary gun
restrictions,” Jenkins wrote on Facebook before the meeting.

“I plan to properly screen and deputize thousands of our law-abiding

citizens to protect their constitutional right to own firearms,” he added.

https://nypost.com/2019/12/10/virginia-sheriff-vows-to-deputize-residents-
if-state-gun-control-legislation-passes/

U.S. Supreme Court rejects Lehigh County’s (PA) appeal in concealed

weapon case

The high court ...rejected a request by the Lehigh County District

Attorney’s Office to review a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision
throwing out its case against a man stopped by Allentown police after a
camera operator spotted him tucking a revolver in his waistband outside
a gas station.
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Michael J. Hicks, who was licensed to carry the gun, wasn’t charged with
a weapons offense, but he was convicted of drunken driving as a result of
his June 28, 2014, encounter with police.

The May decision by Pennsylvania justices overturned a longstanding legal

doctrine that an officer’s knowledge of a concealed weapon was a sufficient
basis for reasonable suspicion to detain a person and investigate whether
they have a license to conceal.

In dismissing the drunken driving charge against Hicks, the state Supreme
Court said the rule that permitted the stop “subverts the fundamental
protections of the Fourth Amendment,” against unreasonable search and
seizure.

https://www.mcall.com/news/police/mc-nws-lehigh-county-hicks-supreme-
court-denied-20191212-6q62g2uinna7xohblsy4teeyym-story.html

Washington state seeks to ban sale of 'assault weapons,' high capacity

magazines
If successful, Washington would become the seventh U.S. state to ban
assault weapons, which it defines as semi-automatic rifles with at least
one military feature, and the ninth to limit the capacity of ammunition
magazines.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-washington-guns/washington-state-
seeks-to-ban-sale-of-assault-weapons-high-capacity-magazines-
idUSKBN1YH01Z