Springfield, VA – -(AmmoLand.com)- Gun Owners of America (GOA) and Gun Owners of California (GOC) have released a letter today formally requesting that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), which operates under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, declare that the firearms industry and retail gun stores are “essential” businesses.
CISA recently issued a national advisory entitled Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response.
The GOA/GOC letter is in response to CISA’s invitation of March 19, 2020, to propose modifications to that Guidance.
Signed by GOA’s Senior Vice President Erich Pratt and GOC’s Executive Director Sam Paredes, the letter states “GOA and GOC urge you to modify that Guidance to include in the list of critical infrastructure the Firearms Industry — those businesses which manufacture and sell firearms, ammunition, and accessories, and repair firearms, and related businesses, that together provide and maintain the necessary tools to Americans to protect themselves and their families, and to serve as part of the unorganized militia of the United States. 10 U.S.C. § 246.”
Although the language in the CISA Guidance is specific to the Defense Industry, it does not, however clearly protect the Firearms Industry. As noted in the letter, this industry “is a central component of the munitions industry and has served an essential role in the founding of the nation, and the preservation of freedom here and around the world.” As such, many jurisdictions throughout the country have affixed arbitrary conclusions to the Guidance that quite clearly, trample on an individual’s Second Amendment rights.
The letter can be viewed here.
Erich Pratt, or another GOA spokesperson, is available for interviews. Gun Owners of America is a nonprofit grassroots lobbying organization dedicated to protecting the right to keep and bear arms without compromise. GOA represents over two million members and activists.
There is no NATIONAL EMERGENCY, this entire thing is a staged Coup(yes I said it),THE DEEP STATE is till trying to take out Trump.
Flu has killed 3x’s as many as this and we all sit at home like idiots.
In a Free-market, Capitalist society it is the consumer, and in a Republic the citizen, who decides what is “essential”. In a Socialist tyranny, the government decides.
Here in Florida, They closed our outdoor ranges, canceled our gun shows, even closed the Damn beaches! Nobody gives a flying F*ck!
Worse yet.the Local Bird Cage liner prints a story the other day about how the courageous Sheriff’s deputies are patrolling the beaches to keep the serfs off the Kings sand! We wouldn’t wa;t anyone out there poaching the Kings fish now would we!
CISA? Good God! As if we didn’t have enough Federal bureaucrat agencies already screwing around with the 2nd Amendment. Shall not be infringed is not a difficult concept.
You sure won’t ever find the useless NRA ever doing this.
Gun stores are essential in so many ways! Essential to public and private safety, essential to national defense, essential to the economy, the list goes on!
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just released his official opinion on the issue of cities and counties failing to exempt firearms stores from closure.
Paxton stated that municipal and county officials may not use their emergency powers under section 418.108 of the Government Code to regulate or restrict the sale of firearms.
Gun Stores are “Essential” Businesses
As a enumerate right in a national emergency is the first amendment prohibited/suspended,I think not and the second shouldn’t be infringed on either as is not a second class right, treated as such is clearly unConstitutional.
ALL businesses are “essential”. It’s how the employees and owners SURVIVE. Now there is ONE entity that I view and many are starting to realize that is NOT essential, and that is psychopathic control freaks running the “government” in many cases in direct violation of their contract with We The People when it comes to the Constitution.
Yes, but so far it has changed nothing in either PA or NJ, both of which are under lock down. The document is a “Guidance” and does nothing to force anti-2A Governors to change one iota. It may, however, help us win the lawsuits that are currently in effect.
Wow, after my comment about the right and left do not really care about USA I read some of the posts, and it may finally be Our Time. By Our I mean all of USA both the left and the right, and the rest of USA might finally agree that it is time to Take Our Government Back. MY 55 years of voting tells me We All Need To Work Together! Yes we can fight, disagree, and argue, but in the end we Settle on what is best for All Of USA. Throw em all out with your vote. Actually… Read more »