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Two large gun-rights groups are siding with gunmaker Sig Sauer in a court case in which plaintiffs seek to force disclosure of gun owners’ identities without their consent.
On February 17, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and National Rifle Association (NRA) filed an amicus brief with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania in support of defendant SIG SAUER’s motion for reconsideration in the case Hall v. Sig Sauer, Inc.
At issue is the court ordering Sig to divulge the identities of some of its customers to the plaintiffs in the case as part of the discovery process. The brief seeks reconsideration of that order, which FPC and NRA deem inappropriate.
Kostas Moros, SAF director of legal research and education, said such an invasion of privacy represents a threat to lawful gun owners.
“The Second Amendment has always protected not just the right to keep and bear arms, but the privacy necessary to exercise that right without fear of government-compelled exposure or social ostracism,” Moros said in a news release announcing the court action. “Our history and tradition confirm that Americans reasonably expect their status as gun owners to remain private. Forcing a manufacturer to divulge customer identities in civil litigation—without consent or adequate safeguards—violates that long-standing expectation and infringes the right itself. We urge the Court to reconsider and protect gun owners’ privacy.”
This dispute is important to SAF as it threatens the privacy of law-abiding Americans who contact manufacturers for assistance with their firearms, possibly chilling them from seeking help with potential safety issues and exposing them to unwanted scrutiny. Moreover, it presented an excellent opportunity to assist in the development of privacy in gun ownership as an aspect of the Second Amendment right.
“Whatever their reasons for secrecy, our historical tradition supports the idea that Americans have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their status as gun owners,” the brief states. “The Second Amendment was crafted both to recognize what the Founders saw as a natural right, but also as a check on potential government tyranny. Given that latter motivation, privacy in gun ownership has always come hand in hand with the right. So, when gun owners reach out to a firearms manufacturer for help with a allegedly defective gun they purchased, the last thing they would reasonably expect is that said manufacturer would divulge their identity to private plaintiffs without their informed consent, putting their name into a public court record and possibly even requiring them to answer plaintiffs’ subpoenas or sit for depositions.”
FPC founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb said this isn’t the first time his organization has had to deal with privacy issues for gun owners.
“We fought this same issue recently in our own lawsuits, and just like we argued in those cases, there is absolutely no need to hand over a list of gun owners’ names to the government,” Gottlieb concluded. “SAF is committed to ensuring that exercising this fundamental right does not come at the cost of forced disclosure to third parties. This brief defends the privacy that has always been inherent in the right to keep and bear arms.”
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