County Tries to Zone Out a Gun Store
From 2012.
The Board of Supervisors of Alameda County, California, has made a mistake. It tried to change the zoning law to block a gun store from opening.
Why was this a mistake? Because it caught the attention of Al Gottleib of the Second Amendment Foundation. In gun control circles, Gottleib is known as “ideologically armed and considered dangerous.”
The Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit against the Board of Supervisors. It’s a constitutional issue, the Foundation says: the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment.
In 2010, three men formed a partnership to open a gun store.
The lawsuit alleges that the three partners applied to the county for conditional use permits to open the gun shop, and were quickly faced with an unusual zoning requirement that their front door had to be more than 500 feet from the nearest liquor store, school or private residence. They took measurements to the nearest residence and found they were more than the minimum distance with a comfortable buffer.However, the lawsuit asserts, the county then changed its measurement requirement, even though the West County Board of Zoning Adjustments had voted to approve a conditional use permit and allow the gun store to operate.
Gottleib says that the Board had “gone out of their way to prevent three businessmen from opening a gun store in their jurisdiction.”
Another allegation in the lawsuit is that the Board of Supervisors improperly allowed a local homeowners association to file an appeal after a deadline for such appeals had passed.“This is a violation of their rights of equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment, and cannot be allowed to stand,” Gottlieb said, explaining SAF’s interest in the case. “Social bigotry is bad enough when practiced by the media and the gun prohibition lobby but when it becomes the official policy of an elected government panel, it then becomes necessary, if not imperative, for the courts to intervene.”
The Board had better have a good attorney to defend its actions. When the Second Amendment Foundation takes a case, it is a challenge to beat it in court.
Continue reading here.
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Published on July 18, 2012. The original is here.
In 2016, four years later, the 9th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 2 to 1 against Alameda County.
It takes a lot of expensive legal talent to achieve a victory like this. This is why organizations such as the Second Amendment Foundation are crucial. Some local gun shop cannot afford this.