The Second Amendment Foundation says its court victory in 2012 that nullified North Carolina’s emergency powers provision to prevent people from possessing firearms or ammunition outside their homes during a declared emergency is proving its worth with the current Coronavirus panic.
Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper’s emergency declaration that essentially shut down the state couldn’t disarm Tar Heel State residents. Thanks to the federal court ruling, it is no longer legal to prohibit citizens from venturing outside their homes with firearms or ammunition. Eight years ago, the court deemed that prohibition to be an unconstitutional infringement of the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
That ruling was issued by federal Judge Malcolm J. Howard, who subjected the state law to strict scrutiny. Judge Howard wrote at the time, “While the bans imposed pursuant to these statutes may be limited in duration, it cannot be overlooked that the statutes strip peaceable, law abiding citizens of the right to arm themselves in defense of hearth and home, striking at the very core of the Second Amendment.”
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb observed, “We could not have foreseen that our case against North Carolina would ever keep citizens safe in this kind of emergency, but we are delighted that no public official can arbitrarily render the state’s residents unable to defend themselves on the grounds of a declared emergency. That’s the time when honest citizens might need their firearms the most while away from home.”
When the lawsuit was filed in 2010, on the same day the Supreme Court handed down its landmark ruling in McDonald v. City of Chicago, Gottlieb considered at it as a defensive measure for private citizens in the aftermath of a hurricane or some other natural disaster. But the World Health Organization has just deemed Coronavirus to be a pandemic.
Many people believe the media is fomenting panic, or at least contributing to it.
The case was known as Bateman v. Perdue.
