SAF Joins Lawsuit Challenging California Delays in Processing Gun Transactions

The Second Amendment Foundation has joined in a lawsuit challenging California’s use of bureaucracy and the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine and restrict citizens’ access to firearms in violation of the state’s 10-day waiting period law.

SAF is joined by the Firearms Policy Foundation, California Gun Rights Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., San Diego Gun Owners PAC, Five Five Six, Inc., dba Firearms Unknown, PWGG L.P., dba Poway Weapons & Gear & PWG Range and four private citizens. They are represented by attorney Bradley A. Benbrook. The case is known as Campos v. Becerra.

Named as defendants are California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Brent E. Orick, director of the California Department of Justice, Bureau of Firearms, in their official capacities.

“California DOJ and the Bureau of Firearms are using the state’s Dealer Record of Sale and the coronavirus outbreak to violate the state’s 10-day waiting period by extending it as long as 30 days to complete a firearms transaction,” SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb explained. “The agency is essentially violating its own law to perpetuate its anti-gun political philosophy needlessly delaying the ability of law-abiding Californians to exercise their rights.”

The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court, notes this policy delays firearm transfers “beyond what is authorized by law.” Plaintiffs note state law allows anti-gun Gov. Gavin Newsom to suspend state law based on emergencies like the pandemic, but he did not suspend the state Penal Code dealing with firearms “because it would have invited a wave of litigation over whether an up-to-30-day delay violates the Second Amendment.”

“Such delay tactics are unconscionable,” Gottlieb stated, “and this is just one more example of anti-Second Amendment politicians exploiting the COVID-19 crisis to infringe on the rights of Golden State residents. They are also exploiting the state’s so-called ‘universal background check’ requirement to cloak this strategy. As we explain in the lawsuit, California DOJ is essentially rewriting provisions in statute in an effort to cover themselves, and we’re not going to let them get away with it.”

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.