SCOTUS case seeks full 2nd Amendment recognition of right to sell guns

A would-be store owner in California has appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court to recognize his Second Amendment right to sell guns.

John Teixeira was prohibited by Alameda County from opening a gun store and asked the Supreme Court to review his case, which he believes violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms.

(Image: Wikimedia)

According to The Washington Times:

The county denied Mr. Teixeira a permit to open a gun story because it would have violated an ordinance requiring firearms dealerships to be 500 feet away from residential areas, schools, day cares, liquor stores and establishments, and other gun shops.

Mr. Teixeira’s store would have been 446 feet away from two residential areas, 14 feet under the 500-ft requirement.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Mr. Teixeira and his co-plaintiffs, holding there was no Second Amendment right to open a store, or to sell firearms.

“The Second Amendment commands that ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed,’” Clinton-appointed Judge Marsha S. Berzon wrote in the opinion for the Circuit court. “That language confers a right on the ‘people’ who would keep and use arms, not those desiring to sell them.”

Teixeira was joined in that 2012 challenge to the California zoning ordinance by businessmen Steve Nobriga and Gary Gamaza as well as the Calguns Foundation, Second Amendment Foundation and California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, according to Fox News.

“You simply cannot allow local governments to ignore the Second Amendment because they don’t like how the Supreme Court has ruled on the amendment twice in the past ten years,” Alan M. Gottlieb, Executive Vice President and founder of Second Amendment Foundation, told Fox News. “You shouldn’t be able to zone the Second Amendment out of the Bill of Rights.”

(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

The county’s 500 feet zoning requirement apparently has not been met by many other establishments, the businessmen argued.

“Local neighbors who live eight lanes across an interstate and the anti-rights politicians that cater to them can’t redline gun stores and the right to buy arms out of existence,” Gene Hoffman, chairman of the Calguns Foundation, said in a statement to Fox News. “Since this case was filed multiple local city and county governments have used unconstitutional zoning laws to stop new gun stores from opening and close down existing gun stores. If this was a bookstore or an abortion clinic, the Ninth Circuit would not have hesitated in striking this zoning regulation unanimously.”

Teixeira’s appeal to the Supreme Court noted the “infringement” by the government on “a fundamental right.”

“When courts no longer require the government to justify its infringement of a fundamental right, the ‘right’ has ceased to exist,” the appeal read. “And if any regulatory history automatically negated a right to engage in the regulated activity, there would be no rights at all.”

Wake up right! Receive our free morning news blast HERE

DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW

Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!

Success! Thank you for donating. Please share BPR content to help combat the lies.
Frieda Powers

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

PLEASE JOIN OUR NEW COMMENT SYSTEM! We love hearing from our readers and invite you to join us for feedback and great conversation. If you've commented with us before, we'll need you to re-input your email address for this. The public will not see it and we do not share it.

Latest Articles