by Dave Workman | Senior Editor
Four California gun dealers have filed an unusual federal lawsuit against State Attorney General Kamala Harris, alleging that enforcement of a law that prohibits them from displaying images of handguns or even the word “handguns” where they would be visible to passersby is an unconstitutional violation of their First Amendment rights.
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is offering financial support for this action, although it is not a plaintiff in the case. It joins the Calguns Foundation and California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees in backing the constitutional issue.
SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb acknowledged the unusual nature of the lawsuit. It’s not a Second Amendment action so much as a First Amendment case, but both constitutional rights are in play.
“This will serve as a reminder that firearms dealers have First Amendment rights as well as Second Amendment rights, even in California,” he said. “A state cannot legislate political correctness at the expense of a fundamental, constitutionally-delineated civil right. SAF is delighted to offer its financial support of this case.”
The eight-page federal complaint is interesting in many respects. The lawsuit alleges that the California Penal Code violates the First Amendment rights of the plaintiffs by prohibiting them from telling potential customers what they sell by images or words. However, anti-gun protesters are still allowed to appear with signs that use the words or images, constituting what the lawsuit calls “viewpoint discriminatory.”
“By prohibiting firearms dealers from displaying on-site handgun advertisements, Section 26820 violates the right of firearms dealers to disseminate truthful, non-misleading commercial information about a lawful, constitutionally protected product,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit is generically known as TRAP v. Harris, for the Tracy Rifle and Pistol (TRAP) store run by Michael Baryla, one of the four plaintiffs. The other plaintiffs are Ten Percent Firearms, owned by Wesley Morris; Sacramento Black Rifle, Inc., owned by Robert Adams, and PRK Arms, Inc., owned by Jeffrey Mullen. They are represented by attorneys Bradley A. Benbrook and Stephen Duvernay, Benbrook Law Group, PC, and UCLA Law Professor Eugene Volokh.
Recently, the California Department of Justice stopped by Tracy Rifle and Pistol and cited Baryla for the advertisements in his store windows. The advertisements shows images of rifles, shotguns, handguns and even what the state terms “assault weapons.” The lawsuit followed.
“I run one of the most heavily regulated and inspected businesses in existence, but it’s still illegal for me to show customers that I sell handguns until after they walk in the door,” Baryla said in the statement. “That’s about as silly a law as you could imagine, even here in California.”
