SAF SAYS SUPERVISOR DALY SHOULD PAY SAN FRANCISCO’S LEGAL BILLS FOR LAWSUIT
11/14/2005
“Supervisor Daly cooked up this gun ban measure and now that it is being challenged in court, he ought to personally cover the legal bills,” said SAF founder Alan M. Gottlieb. “San Francisco taxpayers, many of them gun owners who will be adversely affected by this ban measure, should not have to pay for Daly’s folly.
“Local news organizations, the San Francisco Police Officers’ Association, Senator Dianne Feinstein and even Mayor Gavin Newsom all said Proposition H was not going to stand muster under the state preemption law,” Gottlieb noted, “but Daly pushed it anyway. There is no way that San Francisco taxpayers should pay the legal bills that are already mounting up.”
One day after San Francisco voters approved the measure, it was challenged in court by SAF, the National Rifle Association, Law Enforcement Alliance of America, the California Association of Firearm Retailers and several citizens. A similar ban was successfully challenged in court 22 years ago by SAF.
“Chris Daly’s measure is anti-choice,” Gottlieb observed. “The reason that we’ve gone to court is to protect the citizens’ right to choose whether they want to have the means to defend themselves against criminal attack. We believe that passage of Proposition H is not only contrary to state law, it sends the wrong message to criminals in the Bay area that they will have a risk-free working environment, where their victims will be unable to protect themselves, their families and their homes. If this stands, what other choices will Daly want to take out of the hands of his constituents? What else will he tell them they can’t do in their own homes?
“We’re not saying everyone should have a gun,” Gottlieb explained. “Our lawsuit to stop enactment of this ban is to protect the right of every San Franciscan to make that choice. If Chris Daly sincerely believes it is best to deny his constituents the right to choose, then he should finance the legal battle out of his own pocket.”