By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
The National Rifle Association declared victory over the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the controversial battle that ignited when NRA was declared a “terrorist organization” thanks to a memo sent around by Mayor London Breed that essentially told the city to back off.
The resolution, adopted back on Sept. 3, was approved unanimously. It said “the City and County of San Francisco should take every reasonable step to assess the financial and contractual relationships our vendors and contractors have with this domestic terrorist organization; that the City and County of San Francisco should take every reasonable step to limit those entities who do business with the City and County of San Francisco from doing business with this domestic terrorist organization” and finally that “the City and County of San Francisco should encourage all other jurisdictions, including other cities, states, and the federal government, to adopt similar positions.”
But Mayor Breed’s memorandum to city officials instructed, “no [municipal] department will take steps to restrict any contractor from doing business with the NRA or to restrict City contracting opportunities for any business that has any relationship with the NRA.”
Six days after the San Francisco resolution was adopted last month declaring the NRA a “terrorist organization,” the NRA sued. The Resolution was labeled by the National Review’s David French as “a direct, viewpoint-based attack on the freedom of association of private citizens.”
“Through these actions and our public advocacy, we hope the message is now clear,” said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre in a prepared statement. “The NRA will always fight to protect our members and the constitutional freedoms in which they believe.”
More than one speaker during the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference in Phoenix alluded to the San Francisco action, referring to the audience as “terrorists.”
When Mayor Breed backpedaled, it was a victory for the First Amendment, many people contend.
Passage of the measure revealed how extreme the Board of Supervisors had acted, and that alarmed some people, including journalists at the Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.
NRA attorney William A. Brewer III stated, “It is unfortunate that in today’s polarized times, some elected officials would rather silence opposing arguments than engage in good-faith debate.”
As noted by French in his National Review piece, it’s one thing for cities to “engaged in inflammatory name-calling and vicious public posturing,” but it’s quite another to engage in what the NRA called “blacklisting.”
