Chief editor of the Second Amendment Foundation's Investigative Journalism Project. Recovering newspaperman, tactical shooter, Army vet, ex-LEO, 1*, Rum snob.
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Joined February 2013
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OPPOSITION GOVERNMENTS FILE BRIEFS WITH SUPREME COURT IN SAF’S ‘ASSAULT WEAPONS’ BAN CHALLENGES.
BELLEVUE, Wash. — Oct. 22, 2026 — The opposition in Second Amendment Foundation’s (SAF) challenges to so-called “assault weapons” bans has filed their opening briefs with the Supreme Court laying out why their bans meet the demands of the Constitution.
This summer, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear SAF’s two cases – Viramontes v. Cook County and Grant v. Higgins – challenging bans on commonly owned rifles, including the AR-15, in both Cook County, Ill., and Connecticut. Originally filed in 2021, Viramontes challenges Cook County’s ban on many commonly owned modern firearms, which was the precursor for the nearly identical statewide ban passed by the Illinois legislature. In Grant, SAF is challenging Connecticut’s ban on commonly owned semi-automatic rifles – both by name and by feature set.
“Categorical bans on the most commonly owned rifles in America violate the Second Amendment, full stop,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Unfortunately, countless peaceful Americans across the U.S. are subject to these unconstitutional bans, which single out and demonize modern semi-automatic rifles for nonsensical reasons like the adjustability of a shoulder stock or angle of a grip. The Supreme Court has already laid out a clear method of analysis for statutes like these – and has set constitutional standards that these laws simply fail to meet. The opposition briefs filed attempt ‘creative’ tactics to avoid those standards – or challenge them outright – and we are confident the Court will not be persuaded. We look forward to filing our reply and responding directly to these poorly conceived positions.”
You can read Cook County’s brief here and Connecticut’s brief here. SAF is joined in Viramontes by the Firearms Policy Coalition and two private citizens and is joined in Grant by the Connecticut Citizens Defense League and three private citizens. Oral arguments for both cases are set for Wednesday, Dec. 2.
“It’s high time that assault weapons bans recede back into the primordial ooze of gun control legislation from which they emerged,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “One might think Supreme Court caselaw explaining that arms in ‘common use’ are protected by the Second Amendment, and bans on a rifle owned by more than 30 million law-abiding citizens would be incompatible, yet here we are. Anti-gun zealots appear willing to cling to these laws despite the weight of the Constitution being against them. Now is a great time to join SAF and throw your support behind us as we prepare our reply on behalf of all peaceable Americans.”
For more information visit SAF.org.
The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the fundamental rights of individuals enshrined in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. SAF engages in aggressive legal action to ensure the principles of armed self-defense, personal liberty, and the ownership of arms are defended, secured, and restored. Through public education initiatives, SAF teaches the importance of the Second Amendment to promote a society that values and exercises the right to keep and bear arms.
@2AFDN
Lee Williams retweeted
What a bonkers argument. First of all, if AR15s aren't popular than no rifle is, because they are the most popular rifle.
Second, you only get that 24% figure if you ignore Cook County's argument that there are 600 mass shootings per year, because AR15s are a tiny fraction of those! Maybe the Court should have them duke it out on that point I guess.
See how they shift what a "mass shooting" is from moment to moment depending on what they need to argue?
Lee Williams retweeted
This absolutely does suck. @GovRonDeSantis has the opportunity to do an amazing thing and make Seminole Wind the new state song for Florida.
Lee Williams retweeted
AG James Uthmeier Joins CFO Blaise Ingoglia, and FDLE Commissioner Larry Keefe in Orlando to Announce the Arrest of Kissimmee Mayor Following Public Corruption Investigation xitter.cf/i/broadcasts/1kKzDPRQn…
One thing even the Dems have to admit about Florida's great Attorney General James Uthmeier, he's never boring.
🚨 BREAKING: Democrat-aligned Kissimmee FL Mayor Jackie Espinosa has just been ARRESTED on Grand THEFT and Organized Scheme to DEFRAUD, AG James Uthmeier announces
WOW. FLORIDA FAFO ☀️
She was booked into the Osceola County Jail this morning. She was already under fire for allegedly steering $50,000 in COVID relief grants to businesses run by her own family, through a program she helped create
"This morning, we arrested Kissimmee mayor Jackie Espinosa and are charging her with Grand Theft and Organized Scheme to Defraud."
A special prosecutor found "clear probable cause" to pursue her impeachment on three ethics allegations
Florida doesn't play! FRAUDSTERS ARE BEING PROSECUTED FULLY.
Lee Williams retweeted
This morning, we arrested Kissimmee mayor Jackie Espinosa and are charging her with Grand Theft and Organized Scheme to Defraud.
We will be holding a press conference at 2pm at our Orlando office with CFO Ingoglia and FDLE Commissioner Keefe to provide more information.
Lee Williams retweeted
This morning my team, along with @fdlepio, arrested the Mayor of Kissimmee for abusing her office for personal gain.
I am proud of the outstanding work that my auditing team and Criminal Investigations Division did to uncover the alleged misuse of taxpayer dollars and to ensure that Jackie Espinosa’s corruption did not go without recourse.
See you at 2pm with more info with @AGJamesUthmeier
SAF, NRA file amicus brief challenging lifetime firearms ban for nonviolent felons.
“History disarmed the dangerous, not the peaceable,” said SAF Director of Legal Research and Education Kostas Moros. “A nonviolent felony is not a lifetime forfeiture of the right to keep and bear arms.”
tinyurl.com/3jx3ttrp @2AFDN
Lee Williams retweeted
19-year-old Jeffrey Carney’s espionage cost the US an estimated $15,000,000,000 in the mid-1980s.
In early 1983 Carney was stationed in West Berlin with the US Air Force’s 6912th Electronic Security Group as a German linguist, translating captured audio transmissions for the NSA. He was also a deeply lonely, secretly gay, and had joined the Air Force to get away from a poor family situation.
After a night of drinking in April 1983, he crossed the line between West and East Berlin and requested to defect to East Germany. He naively believed he would be welcomed with open arms and given a place to live.
After extensive questioning by Stasi agents, he was convinced to return home immediately. Their leverage was a threat to surreptitiously report to his commanding officer that he had attempted to defect. For the next year, he secretly photographed more than 100 Top Secret documents and turned them over to his Stasi handler, sometimes leaving them at a dead drop location inside an ammunition box in the forest near Eiskiller.
The intelligence he provided was so sensitive that even spymaster Markus Wolf himself was said to be amazed by what Carney provided. When he was transferred back to the US the following year, he continued meeting with Stasi agents on trips to Mexico and Brazil.
On a trip to Mexico City in 1985, he went to the East German embassy and again requested to defect. This time he made it, after flying first to Cuba, then Prague, and finally to East Germany. What he found was hardly the paradise he had hoped for. He was provided a one-room apartment which had been bugged by the Stasi. There he lived and worked until the Berlin Wall fell. One day in 1991 after reunification, he was captured on the street in broad daylight by Air Force OSI agents and extradited to the US for trial.
After twelve years imprisonment at Fort Leavenworth, Carney was released. He attempted to emigrate to back to Germany, but his application was denied. The country he had betrayed America for no longer existed.
#afosi #usairforce #eastberlin #westberlin #defector
Lee Williams retweeted
Perhaps no claim has been as frequently repeated by the gun control side in recent years than "guns are the leading cause of death for kids."
Our new Fact Sheet examines this claim in detail using the CDC's provisional data for 2025, which is the most recent available.
The takeaway: while gun-related causes temporarily passed traffic-related causes during the crime surge years, you can only claim guns were the leading cause of death among minors if you:
1. Ignore that accidents as a combined category have always been a far greater cause of death for that age cohort; and
2. simultaneously combine all gun-related deaths regardless of intent (suicides, homicides, and accidents).
Lee Williams retweeted
Virginia law prohibits carrying firearms in certain state-owned buildings, like highway rest stops and ABC stores.
GOF and @GunOwners are challenging these restrictions in court. Virginians shouldn’t have to surrender their rights to enter a government building.
