Attorneys general from 26 states have signed onto a lawsuit over a San Francisco ordinance mandating gun owners to keep their firearms in locked containers or disabled with a trigger lock at all times unless carrying it on their person.
In the brief, the states argue that they “have a profound interest in protecting the fundamental constitutional rights of their citizens. Among these fundamental rights is the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”
The lawsuit notes that a similar law in D.C. was already overturned by the landmark Supreme Court case District of Columbia v. Heller. Heller overturned D.C.’s singularly restrictive firearm regulations, including language that required registered guns in the home to be unloaded, disassembled or bound by a trigger lock.
Alabama’s Attorney General Luther Strange told AL.com the ordinance restricts individuals’ right to self-defense, “since most people don’t have time to unlock and remove their gun from storage during an attack.”
“Common sense dictates that in high stress, emergency situations, the ease and speed with which a person can utilize one of these mechanisms to unlock a safe drastically decreases,” the brief argues. “It is common to fumble with keys while trying to hurriedly unlock a door, to forget a series of numbers when under pressure, or to struggle with hand-eye coordination when subjected to stressors.”
The lawsuit was filed Thursday, and is part of an appeal by the National Rifle Association.
The attorneys general are from Nebraska, Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.
