SAF Lawsuit Challenges California's One-Gun-Per-Month Restriction

The Second Amendment Foundation and several partners today filed a federal lawsuit challenging California’s one-gun-per-month limit, declaring the limitation a violation of the Second Amendment.

Joining SAF are the Firearms Policy Coalition, Inc., San Diego County Gun Owners PAC, North County Shooting Center, Inc., PWGG, L.P., a limited partnership, and six private citizens. Defendants are California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Luis Lopez, director of the state Department of Justice, Bureau of Firearms in their official capacities. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego. The case is known as Nguyen v. Becerra.

Plaintiffs are represented by attorney Raymond M. DiGuiseppe of Southport, N.C.

“California’s one-handgun-per-month purchasing restriction is an unconstitutional prohibition that will also apply to all semiautomatic centerfire rifles starting in July,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The policy discriminates against private citizens because it does not apply to motion picture, television or video production companies, which we call the ‘Hollywood exemption.’ The way Becerra and Lopez enforce the law amounts to an infringement on the individual right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment, and a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.”

Gottlieb noted the Second Amendment was incorporated to apply to the states via the 14th Amendment as part of the 2010 Supreme Court ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago, a SAF case.

“We are asking for an injunction against this law, which shouldn’t really exist in the first place,” he added.