The National Rifle Association alleges the city of San Francisco defamed it when local leaders branded the gun rights group a “domestic terrorist organization” in a resolution earlier this month.
The city is violating the NRA’s First Amendment speech rights and has effectively moved to “blacklist anyone linked to the N.R.A,” it said in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, according to the New York Times.
Supervisor Catherine Stefani of the San Francisco board told the Times the suit is likely to be thrown out because the resolution is “nonbinding.”
“It’s a resolution, it’s not an ordinance,” she said. “This is a desperate move by a desperate organization.”
Earlier this month, Stefani introduced a measure calling the NRA a dangerous domestic terrorist organization and a threat to public safety.
“The National Rifle Association spreads propaganda that misinforms and aims to deceive the public about the dangers of gun violence,” she wrote. “The NRA exists to spread disinformation, and knowingly puts guns into the hands of those who would harm and terrorize us.”
The resolution, which passed, was in response to a pair of mass shootings in Dayton, Ohio and El Paso, Texas this summer.
Both attacks have sparked new calls from gun control advocates and Democratic lawmakers for Republicans and President Trump to “stand up” to the NRA and the gun lobby in Washington, D.C.
The NRA has long held the belief that “grabbing” guns from law-abiding citizens who legally own firearms will not prevent such attacks.
“This ludicrous stunt by the Board of Supervisors is an effort to distract from the real problems facing San Francisco, such as rampant homelessness, drug abuse and skyrocketing petty crime, to name a few,” it said in a response. “The NRA will continue working to protect the constitutional rights of all freedom-loving Americans,” it said in a statement following the city’s resolution.
The resolution, which gained national attention, has threatened the NRA’s bottom line, it says.
“In the face of recent, similar blacklisting schemes,” the lawsuit says, “financial institutions have expressed reluctance to provide bank accounts for disfavored political groups, and city contractors fear losing their livelihoods if they support or even work with the N.R.A.”
