Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker
Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker (Courtesy North Carolina Sheriffs' Association)

From the Second Amendment Foundation . . .

A U.S. District Court Judge in North Carolina has ruled that plaintiffs in a case challenging last year’s “temporary suspension” of accepting and processing pistol purchase permits allegedly due to the COVID-19 outbreak and state of emergency declared by Gov. Roy Cooper, may pursue damage claims and associated claims for declaratory relief and attorney’s fees.

The case is known as Stafford v. Baker.

On March 24, 2020, Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker “announced a temporary suspension in the acceptance and processing of [pistol purchase permit] applications, through April 30, 2020, citing as the basis for this action, according to the complaint, “a significant increase in PPP applicants and concomitant concerns over social distancing violation by long lines of applicants,” according to the ruling by Judge Louise W. Flanagan.

Plaintiff Kelly Stafford called the Wake County Sheriff’s Office to ask about proceeding with her application for the pistol purchase permit. Because the application process had been suspended until after April 30, “she was statutorily barred from purchasing any handgun for defense of herself and her family in her home.”

The Second Amendment Foundation, Grass Roots North Carolina and Firearms Policy Coalition filed suit with Stafford.

“While we understand concerns about the coronavirus that erupted at the time,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, “one simply cannot suspend the ability of private citizens to exercise their constitutional rights.”

Judge Flanagan’s ruling recognizes that Stafford “has already obtained all the relief she sought in her claim for injunctive relief, and she will not have a need to obtain again a PPP permit.”

“We’re glad Kelly was able to finally get her PPP,” Gottlieb noted, “but that wasn’t the point. The constitution doesn’t take a day off, even in a declared state of emergency. And neither do we.”

 

The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 700,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.

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51 COMMENTS

  1. Modus operandi: use the fake “virus” crisis to deny Constitutional rights, notably the 1st and 2nd.

    Are y’all understanding what’s going on yet?

    • The virus is absolutely real. The crisis is absolutely manufactured. That be a classic power grab maneuver. Make everyone afraid, then tell them you’ll save them if they’ll just do what you say. Worked wonders after 9-11.

      • ^
        I would also note that it goes much farther than the 1A and 2A already and you can tell they intend to push it further still by the way they talk about it. This is one area where they’re extremely consistent; floating a trial balloon as a “we may have to” and then morphing it into a “we have to” and then a “we are now engaged in” right before your eyes in the space of 2-6 weeks.

        Pretty impressive that people tolerate it really. “Two weeks to flatten the curve” became “stop the spread” became “we might be back to normal by 2022” and most people just kinda took it in the shorts with a smile. Your major issues being rent moratoriums and stimmy checks.

        • Hey that stimmy check helped me out a lot. I run down to WalMart and bought a whole bunch of stuff. No bullets or gunms, but a whole bunch of stuff marked Made in China. Now if that doesn’t stimulate the U.S. economy I dont know what does.

        • There could have been a lot more PPP actions taken than stopping applications. Shield and protective gear for staff, lines marked on the floor to keep spacing, limit the number of people allowed in line inside, have appointment blocks, curbside/online application forms, take a number and wait in your car until they’re ready for you, etc. Instead, they chose denying people their rights. You can bet their tax and fee collection agencies didn’t shut down.

    • Well it’s Trumps fault the World got coronavirus. If that wouldn’t have happened she’d have got her pistul when she wanted it.

    • It will tie directly into “climate change” and climate lockdowns, controlling travel, etc. Masks serve as a perpetual reminder of fear fear fear, likewise with signs, otherwise people run the risk of turning off the TV and forgetting the plandemic ever existed.

      Funny how the death toll is people who died “with covid” and not “from covid”. Yeah, count me out.

      • Supposedly “500,000” now…

        Which still equates to 0.001% of the population.
        .002 if you round up…

        I get thanked all the time for not masking. Says a lot about demographics where I live. Karen’s gonna Karen regardless of the issue. Fuck em.

        • Montana Actual,

          Observer is correct that your Arithmetic is wrong. The correct number is that media reports of 500,000 people dying “with COVID-19” is about 0.0015625 of the U.S. population which is 0.15625% of the U.S. population.

    • This sheriff is garbage, cannot wait to vote him out 2022, He closed our county gun range down because it was not making money but was built for and funded by tax payers of wake county. It is a long story but he is a real POS he has done everything he can to make purchasing firearms difficult . He complained about the gun show after January 6th trying to scare everyone about some domestic terrorism bs. If he had cared more about the BLM parade breaking windows setting buildings on fire instead of law abiding citizen exercising their rights, downtown would not war zone for months.

      https://www.ammoland.com/2019/12/sheriff-unilaterally-closing-nc-gun-range-undermined-gun-safety/#axzz6nG4zeVYV

      • Rockingham County prioritized PPP & CCW applications. Our Sheriff Sam Page just put out a news releases on how many RC residents are now CCW holders, 10%. He said he wants to see it continually grow. Six years ago he STRONGLY SUGGESTED that every ‘no weapons’ sign in the entire county come down; most did. Sam said that no matter where you were in RC you had the right to defend yourself. A model for every Sheriff in the entire USA.

  3. Choose Death is certainly correct, the virus is real, very real and very deadly. The annual flu, to which the COVID virus has been erroneously compared by some, only kills about 2,000 Americans a year. In approximately the same period of time the COVID virus has killed almost almost a half a million.

    • Covid is so deadly that it killed the seasonal flu.

      https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

      Between October 1, 2020, and February 13, 2021, FluSurv-Net sites in 14 states reported 173 laboratory confirmed influenza hospitalizations for an overall cumulative hospitalization rate of 0.6 per 100,000 population. This is much lower than average for this point in the season and lower than rates for any season since routine data collection began in 2005

    • Compared the the “Spanish Flu” (and Jan-Mar 2020 in chicomland) and this, as it has developed, this isn’t shit.

      Our “modern science” is dragging it out interminably. The Spanish whipped thru the world and was done in 18m. BIG difference with this is the newage demtards have a “crisis” to exploit. CANT let it go to waste.

      • My grandfather had the Spanish flu. Evidently he lived, haha.
        They had no vaccines back then, Mom said she was told they doctored him with whiskey.
        I would imagine now with modern medicine the Spanish flu wouldn’t amount to much.
        Coronavirus, yeah it’s a Democrat thing , used for an agenda. Democrats must be very world influential . The only place it hasn’t infected is those big cities in the Antarctic

    • Hi David. I would like to echo Nero’s point, that your number of influenza deaths are way too low, and I would also like to say that with the numbers being as unreliable as they have been (there are plenty of cases of false attribution of deaths to COVID when the deceased had other issues. Like advanced CHF with ejection fractions of 30%, or acute on chronic end stage renal disease, or they weighed 500 pounds, et al) it is probably closer to an accurate comparison with Influenza than you think. But perhaps not, it’s hard to tell. We had nasal swabs that tested for Influenza Strain A/B/COVID. They disappeared quickly for reasons unknown.

    • LOL, the people claiming CoV-2 is super deadly will still be around after CoV-2 has ceased to be an issue.

      Hilariously, the same people don’t give a fuck about TB, which 13 million Americans have and where active infections are 15% lethal.

      It’s also mildly amusing how little they pay attention to the actual stats and research. Of those who died “with Covid”, 33% had a secondary pneumonia infection. 15% had high blood pressure, 13% had high blood pressure, 13% had preexisting lung issues putting them on the bring of respiratory failure before Covid, 13% had preexisting renal failure and 12% had T2 diabetes (the one you get, by definition, by being too fat).

      So who really gives a shit about 460,000 people who were 1) already at death’s doorstep and 2) mostly brought it on themselves? I mean, it Covid wiped out 460,000 smokers literally no one would care. It would be something about how terrible smoking is, not how “deadly” Covid is.

      Oh, but I forgot, being fat is now “beautiful” and “fat shaming” is unacceptable, immoral behavior. We’re not even allowed to suggest that an obesity rate of 42.7% is obscene and that the people contributing to that number are mostly (barring a few people with some oddball healthy conditions like a thyroid problem) irresponsible fucktards who deserve what they get. The wages of McD’s are slightly above minimum wage for workers and death for “heavy users” (McD’s term, not mine).

      30 years of fast food and sitting on the couch and we’re supposed to shut down the world to save your ass? Nah. What we should be doing is denying you Medicare/Medicaid and booting you from health insurance because your irresponsible rear has made decades of terrible choices and wants everyone else to pay for them now that the bill comes due.

      And even that idiot Fauci, who can’t even handle basic chemistry, has said this is one of the main reasons he’s concerned, because too many people are too fucking fat.

      Screw that. It’s a culling. A culling of the weak and stupid. Exactly what nature does. Sound harsh? Go watch Animal Planet, use your brain and consider it from the point of view of a gazelle. Pretty brutal, huh?

      It’s no wonder this country is fucked. A huge percentage of people across all ages are pathetic, soft cowards.

      • Pretty much that, yeah. You can’t hear it, but I’m nodding my head thoughtfully and agreeing with you.

      • We didn’t shut the whole country down over TB or polio, and both of those diseases were much more debilitating than covid-19, and had a higher mortality rate. As yall have pointed out our society is comprised of individuals who don’t physically take care of themselves. And looking at everything else going on, they don’t seem to take for of themselves morally either. If anything else, it’s a wonder that we are still as dominant a country as we are when our citizenry is rotting away and content to become subjects instead.

    • “Although the number of cases of influenza can vary widely between years, approximately 36,000 deaths and more than 200,000 hospitalizations are directly associated with influenza a year in the United States.” wikiwoowoo.

  4. Now that avenue has been opened, what would be an effective strategy to get maximum relief?

    Roll them all together into a single class action lawsuit?

  6. I see what the problem was,,, take a close look at the Sheriffs eyes, (cross eyed )
    No wonder he couldn’t read the U S Constitution or he only reads every other amendment, in which case he skipped over the # 2 A…
    anyway I say to the Judge, great job.

    • I’m glad someone else noticed that.

      I looked at his picture, read the info. below telling me he was the Sheriff and started laughing thinking it makes perfect sense.

      Ya, I’m mean like that sometimes….

    • It’s his moms fault, she said ” Its as plain as the nose on your face.” From then on he kept looking.

  8. “Pistol purchase permit”.

    I didn’t even know that was a thing in NC. Sounds like the 2A was already infringed even before the processing stopped.

  9. Liberals will do anything to destroy the 2nd Amendment, including racism. Biden and his administration of liberals are moving towards legislation to remove firearms from Hispanics and Blacks who own firearms to protect themselves and their families against criminals, and their confiscation of firearms is racism. We can expect the Biden liberals to include Whites in making guns illegal in order for the government to more easily justify their unconstitutional schemes and to cover up their racism against Americans of color. Rather than enforce the laws against criminals in our society as what should be done to eliminate crime, the Biden administration is using crime to justify making firearms illegal for Hispanic and Black Americans to cover up their racism against these groups of Americans

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