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Massachusetts High Court Urged to Uphold Safe Gun Storage Laws

Boy Holding a Gun from the Dresser [video]
Studies show a direct correlation between improper gun storage and accidental deaths.
The Brady Center, joined by law enforcement and other gun violence prevention groups, filed a friend of the court brief in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court urging the Court to uphold a life-saving gun safety law requiring that guns be secured to prevent accidents and unauthorized use.

Commonwealth v. Runyan considers a challenge to a safe gun storage law following the U.S. Supreme Court's Second Amendment ruling in District of Columbia v. Heller. The Runyan case involves an appeal citing the Second Amendment in dismissing an indictment against a parent who failed to secure a semiautomatic rifle from his severely handicapped teenage son.

The Supreme Court, however, specifically states that its ruling does not call into question "laws regulating the storage of firearms to prevent accidents," such as Massachusetts' safe gun storage law.

The brief also highlights studies that have found a direct correlation between improper gun storage and accidental shooting deaths, and that unintentional shooting deaths among children have been reduced by twenty-three percent in states with safe storage laws.



Brady Center to Defend Pittsburgh Against NRA Lawsuit

The City of Pittsburgh announced it has retained the Brady Center's Legal Action Project attorneys to defend Pittsburgh against a National Rifle Association lawsuit seeking to strike down a new ordinance aimed at stopping gun trafficking.

The NRA lawsuit seeks to invalidate Pittsburgh's anti-trafficking law. When guns are recovered at crime scenes and traced back to a gun trafficker, the traffickers frequently claim that the guns were "stolen" to hide their complicity in gun trafficking.

The law requires that gun owners notify police when their gun is lost or stolen, which also aids law-abiding gun owners by enabling police to quickly investigate and retrieve stolen guns.

Brady President Paul Helmke said of the lawsuit "The NRA's leaders say just 'enforce the laws on the books' — and then they sue to stop the enforcement of common sense laws."



Credit Card Legislation Passes Congress with Dangerous Amendment Allowing Guns in Parks

Donate to Help us keep Parks Safe [logo]

A reckless amendment that could allow people to carry loaded guns, including AK-47s, in national parks was passed by the Congress. Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK) carried the gun lobby's water and added the amendment to completely unrelated legislation to protect credit card users.

In March, U.S. District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly struck down a Bush administration rule on guns in parks that was implemented days before the President left office, finding that the administration issued it in an "astoundingly flawed process."

The Obama administration then agreed to halt the implementation of the rule. The Brady Center had filed suit to block the rule in December, 2008.

The Coburn amendment, which is even more radical than the Bush rule, could override Judge Kollar-Kotelly's injunction. It could allow concealed or open carrying of loaded firearms, including semiautomatic assault weapons, in every national park and wildlife refuge where state law does not prohibit it.



Federal Appeals Court Upholds Lower Court: No Guns at Atlanta Hartsfied Airport

In a victory for common sense, a federal appeals court has ruled that the Georgia legislature can't force Atlanta's International Airport to allow people to carry concealed weapons on airport property.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit accepted arguments made by the Brady Center in an amicus brief it filed, along with Georgians For Gun Safety.

The Court upheld a lower court decision that the City of Atlanta could prohibit visitors from carrying concealed firearms in its airport.



U.S. Supreme Court Upholds Restrictions
on Guns for Domestic Abusers

The U.S Supreme Court rejected arguments by convicted domestic abuser Randy Edward Hayes and the gun lobby that federal law allowed Hayes to possess firearms.

The 7-2 ruling in United States v. Hayes was a blow to gun lobby groups that had urged the Court to severely narrow the federal Lautenberg Amendment that bars gun possession by abusers convicted of misdemeanor crimes of domestic violence.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said Congress' intentions and underlying concerns in its 1996 law were clear: "Firearms and domestic strife are a potentially deadly combination nationwide." Justice Ginsburg was citing the Brady Center's brief in her opinion.

Brady President Paul Helmke, said the ruling is "the right one for victims of domestic abuse and to protect law enforcement officers who are our first responders to domestic violence incidents."



Brady Center Suit Against Utah Gun Shop
Gets Green Light

A District Court judge in Utah has ruled that a lawsuit against pawn shop Sportsman's Fastcash may proceed to trial. The Brady Center suit charges that the pawn shop illegally sold a pistol grip shotgun to shooter Sulejman Talovic.

On February 12, 2007, Talovic, armed with two high-powered firearms, a backpack full of ammunition, and a bandolier of shotgun shells around his waist, turned the Trolley Square mall in Salt Lake into a war zone in a matter of minutes. He killed five people, and wounded four.

The Utah court denied the pawn shop's motion to dismiss the suit filed by Carolyn Tuft. As described in the complaint, Tuft was shot and wounded and her 15-year-old daughter was killed, with a gun the pawn shop sold to Talovic in violation of federal and state gun laws.



Indiana Supreme Court Denies Gun Manufacturers' Appeal

In a landmark ruling, the Indiana Supreme Court ruled that the City of Gary, Indiana's lawsuit against gun manufacturers can proceed to trial. In a major setback to the gun industry, the ruling allows Gary's lawsuit against sixteen gun manufacturers and six gun dealers to proceed to trial. Brady Center lawyers represent the City of Gary in the case.

Brady President Paul Helmke said that the ruling "is an important victory for the people of Gary and particularly those who have suffered from the gun industry's supply of guns to criminals and gun traffickers."



U.S. Supreme Court Decision May Lead to Stronger Gun Laws

Unintended Consequences: What the DC v Heller Decision Means for Future Gun Laws [cover] The U.S. Supreme Court's Second Amendment decision in D.C. v Heller may have the "unintended consequence" of helping to enact stronger gun laws, according to a report issued by the Brady Center.

In June, the Justices disagreed by the narrowest of margins, 5 - 4, on whether the Second Amendment provides an individual, non-militia based right to bear arms. All nine Justices agreed, however, that a wide variety of gun laws are presumptively constitutional, including restrictions on carrying concealed weapons, guns in schools and other sensitive places, and bans on "dangerous and unusual" weapons.

While the decision gives criminal defendants a legal tool to use to potentially avoid criminal convictions or mitigate their punishments and will inspire the gun lobby to challenge gun laws, it may also clear some of the wedge politics that have blocked the nation from passing sensible gun laws in the future, the report says.



Brady Center Hails Court Ruling Blocking Domestic Abusers From Getting Guns

The Brady Center applauds a recent decision that upheld a federal trial court ruling blocking a Wyoming law that would allow convicted domestic violence abusers to possess firearms. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled as the Brady Center had urged in its amicus brief in Wyoming v. United States, prohibiting the state from implementing its law to rearm domestic violence abusers



Brady Center Takes Alaska Dealer to Court for Supplying Rifle to Criminal Murderer

The Brady Center has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the family of Simone Young Kim, who was shot and killed while working in Juneau, Alaska. The killer, Jason Coday, was a fugitive from justice and a methamphetamine user who was prohibited from buying or possessing guns, yet he was able to walk out of Rayco Sales gun shop with a rifle without being subjected to a background check. Two days later Coday used the gun to kill Kim, a total stranger.

The lawsuit, filed along with Mark C. Choate of Juneau, contends that the gun dealer is liable for Kim's death for negligently and potentially illegally providing the rifle to the shooter.



Brady Center Files Brief in Tenth Circuit Court: Guns-at-Work Laws Should Be Unconstitutional

The Brady Center filed a "friend of the court" brief urging the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to affirm a 2007 federal district court ruling striking down Oklahoma's 2005 guns-at-work law as unconstitutional.

Two major safety and security organizations — the American Society of Safety Engineers and ASIS International - joined the Brady Center in filing the brief. After filing the brief, Brady Center President Paul Helmke said "Our workplaces need to be free from gun violence, and that is most likely to happen when they are free from guns."



Brady Report Exposes Gun Dealer Who Supplied Guns for Gangs

A new Brady Center report tells the story of Frank D'Andrea's Connecticut gun shop — "a convenient, one-stop shopping place for violent and prolific narcotics traffickers, convicted felons and other prohibited persons," according to law enforcement. D'Andrea's gun store in the Bridgeport, CT area sold hundreds of guns to gangsters and drug traffickers and was cited for hundreds of legal violations.

Weak gun laws allowed D'Andrea to stay in business for more than two decades, until he was finally arrested and pled guilty to violating federal gun law.



Brady Center Report Describes Risks Of Guns On College Campuses

No Guns Left Behind  [Report Cover]Washington, D.C. — The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence is releasing a new report — No Gun Left Behind: The Gun Lobby's Campaign to Push Guns Into Colleges and Schools — that draws attention to the gun lobby's efforts in recent years, and since the horrific tragedy at Virginia Tech, to change college campus rules prohibiting firearms. The report describes gun lobby efforts in Utah, Maine, South Carolina and other states to force colleges to allow the possession and use of firearms by students and others on campus.





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