SAN JOSE, Calif. (KRON) - San Jose's strict gun ordinance is facing another legal challenge and it's not coming from gun rights organizations - but from taxpayer groups which are now suing the city.
They claim the ordinance violates free speech.
Three local groups are taking aim at San Jose's first of its kind gun ordinance passed in January.
The specific target is the annual $25 fee that gun owners in the city would have to pay.
“We really did not want to go to court over this,” Jonathan Fleming said.
The Silicon Valley Public Accountability Foundation, along with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association, have joined forces on this lawsuit.
The challengers say the new fee violates the free speech rights of gun owners in San Jose along with placing an unconstitutional condition on the 2nd Amendment.
Fleming says the ordinance is essentially enforcing a tax which requires 2/3's voter approval.
Under the ordinance the city is planning to take the money generated from the annual fee and send it to a non-profit.
That non-profit would then distribute the funds to organizations, like suicide-prevention programs, gun safety training or mental health services.
The non-profit has not yet been named or created which is another issue.
“It may or may not force our group and gun owners throughout San Jose to associate with people who they may or may not agree with."
The annual fee and the liability insurance requirement for gun owners followed the shooting at the 2019 Gilroy Garlic Festival and the mass shooting at a VTA railyard last year.
Mayor Sam Liccardo responded to this week's lawsuit simply saying:
"No good deed goes unlitigated."
“When you're taking away somebody's right, when you're trampling on the civil liberties on San Joseans and the people you're supposed to represent, well you've got an issue when it's being litigated. We'll just take it up in court."
The ordinance is set to take effect in August.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/gfH40qC
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