Gun Control Advocates Find a Deep-Pocketed Ally in Big Law

[flamin lib]

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/07/business/dealbook/gun-control-big-law-firms.html?_r=0

In Congress and in the Supreme Court, the gun lobby has racked up some crucial victories in recent years. It won again last month when Donald J. Trump, buoyed by the gun lobby’s money and support, secured an upset victory in the presidential election.

On the defensive, gun control advocates are now quietly developing a plan to chip away at the gun lobby’s growing clout: Team up with corporate law firms.

After the Orlando nightclub massacre and a string of other mass shootings, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison; Covington & Burling; Arnold & Porter; and four other prominent law firms formed a coalition with gun control groups that until now have worked largely on their own. Together, the firms are committing tens of millions of dollars in free legal services from top corporate lawyers who typically bill clients $1,000 an hour or more.

This effort is highly unusual in its scale. Although law firms often donate time to individual causes, and some firms have worked on gun control on a piecemeal basis, the number and the prominence of the firms involved in the new coalition are unheard-of for modern-day big law. Other firms are expected to join in the coming months.

This is much bigger than these four paragraphs represent. The entire article is worth the read.

Of course the gunners will gnash teeth and bitch about 'ultra rich liberals' trying to 'buy their freedoms' but that rings hollow when one considers that the NRA alone spent $50 million on the last election, more than the hated Bloomberg spent starting his whole gun control movement.

The NRA and gun lobby are working at the state level to pass 'preemptive laws' that prevent the implementation of federal and local laws like the one in Kansas which said that any gun or accessory made in Kansas and stamped with 'made in Kansas' was exempt from all federal regulations as long as it remained in Kansas. Too bad two gunners took the law seriously. They've been sentenced to prison for violating federal gun law.
http://ksnt.com/2016/11/14/jury-returns-guilty-verdicts-in-kansas-gun-case/

This is the sort of thing the gun lobby does. Pass idiotic and un-constitutional state laws to intimidate their local law enforcement and citizenry. I think this may be only the first of such gun laws to be challenged now that the legal profession has skin in the game.

[billh58]

1. This is the best answer

to the right-wing NRA/ALEC/Koch Brothers gun-lobby that anyone could imagine. It's about time that people on the right (correct) side of the issue are represented by good legal minds.

With public opinion moving towards more sensible gun control legislation, and the gun huggers influence dwindling, it's only a matter of time before sanity and reason will help to put the brakes on the gun violence epidemic in this country.

Oh, and by the way: Fuck Trump and his right-wing ammosexual supporters.