SAF CHALLENGES DOJ TO INVESTIGATE GUN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CHICAGO

BELLEVUE, WA – While the Department of Justice has just issued a scathing report that Chicago police have “systematically violated the civil rights” of minorities in the city, the Second Amendment Foundation today is wondering why the DOJ hasn’t investigated the city for repeatedly violating the rights of gun owners.

“In the wake of our landmark 2010 victory that nullified Chicago’s handgun ban,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “the city has deliberately dragged its feet and created one roadblock after another in an effort to prevent city residents from exercising their firearms rights. As a result, we’ve had to take the city back to court, while the Justice Department was little more than a spectator. “We shouldn’t have to do the Justice Department’s work to defend the civil rights of firearms owners,” he added. In December, Gottlieb wrote in an opinion piece that appeared in several newspapers that the next attorney general should appoint an assistant whose specific duty would be to search for gun laws that violate the constitutional rights of citizens and take legal action. “Under Barack Obama,” Gottlieb observed, “the Justice Department has been rather choosy about which constitutional and civil rights they defended.

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The Second Amendment protects an individual civil right, same as the First, Fourth and Fifth amendments. Let’s hope that when new leadership assumes the helm at Justice, their investigators are reminded that there are ten amendments in the Bill of Rights, and it’s DOJ’s job to protect all of them. “It would be a welcome change to see the Justice Department come down on Chicago and other municipalities and tell them to clean up their act where gun rights are concerned,” Gottlieb said.