The Ramsey Town Council is doubling down on its attempt to ban gun ranges. Our threat of an immediate lawsuit still stands and we will make good on our promise if the ordinance passes. The bad news for Ramsey is that the odds that they succeed in court are slim.
For those of you unfamiliar with the Ramsey story, you can read a refresher here. Ramsey is trying to pass an ordinance that would ban firing a gun anywhere inside the town, with no exceptions. This would have the effect of banning all gun ranges. This would prevent a gun range that has already been approved for construction from being operational. They couldn’t manage to stop the physical building, so now they’re telling the gun range owners, “You can have your range, but you can’t use it.” There’s just one problem with this.
It’s unconstitutional
Chicago tried the same thing and it was struck down by the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals. Then after that, they tried it again after the initial ruling, and it was struck down again.Chicago ran into the same problem that Ramsey will run into in court: They need to prove that somehow this ordinance’s “public health benefits” outweigh the the Second Amendment. They won’t be able to do it.
David Kopel, a law professor at the University of Denver who specializes in the Second Amendment, said an ordinance like the one Ramsey is contemplating would have a “pretty slender” likelihood of surviving litigation in the wake of the Chicago decisions.
“If the core of the Second Amendment is self-defense, then gun ranges are right beside that core,” he said.
We agree Professor Kopel. That’s why we are ready to go on our lawsuit against Ramsey if they pass this unconstitutional ordinance.
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