In February, the Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance that requires companies seeking city contracts to disclose financial ties with the NRA or any of its subsidiaries. In defending the ordinance, council member Mitch O’Farrell went so far as to publicly claim that the “NRA peddles in gun violence and extremism” and is an extremist and white supremacist group that causes incalculable harm.
When the Budget Committee first brought forward the proposed ordinance late last year, the NRA sent a pre-litigation letter to the City Council. Following the ordinance going into effect on April 1 of this year, the NRA filed a lawsuit on April 24.
The NRA accused the city of Los Angeles of violating the First Amendment and silencing the organization’s voice by discriminating against NRA supporters. As NRA-ILA has noted, the city’s ordinance is nothing short of modern-day McCarthyism and is a concern for everyone who values their rights to free speech and association.
“Politicians are free to disagree with the NRA’s pro-freedom, firearm safety and self-reliance message,” said Chuck Michel of Michel & Associates, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association (CRPA) and civil rights attorney. “They are not free to censor it—as this ordinance would do when NRA supporters drop their NRA affiliations for fear of losing work from the city of Los Angeles because they get put on this ‘blacklist’ with the city of Los Angeles.”
