A pair of Second Amendment advocates took a stand last week to protect the private information of gun owners. At issue in Hall v. Sig Sauer, Inc., a liability lawsuit in which the plaintiffs seek to compel Sig Sauer to surrender their customer list without the buyers’ permission, is the demand for customer rolls.
The Pennsylvania District Court ordered the release of some purchaser names during discovery, an act the company is obviously challenging.
The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and the National Rifle Association (NRA) filed an amicus brief with the court supporting Sig Sauer’s motion for reconsideration.
Gun rights include a reasonable expectation of privacy
SAF Director of Legal Research and Education Kostas Moros explained that the right to keep and bear arms includes a reasonable expectation of privacy.
“The Second Amendment has always protected not just the right to keep and bear arms, but the privacy necessary to exercise that right without fear of government-compelled exposure or social ostracism,” Moros declared. “Our history and tradition confirm that Americans reasonably expect their status as gun owners to remain private. Forcing a manufacturer to divulge customer identities in civil litigation—without consent or adequate safeguards—violates that longstanding expectation and infringes the right itself.”
Government officials should never have a registry of law-abiding gun owners
The NRA described the action as a call “to protect the privacy rights of gun owners by rejecting efforts to force a firearms manufacturer to reveal customer identities in civil litigation.”
The 2A organization recalled the Firearm Owners’ Protection Act and its defense of privacy. Without such legislation, the NRA warned that subsequent disclosures “would violate that expectation, expose individuals to public scrutiny and legal burdens, and undermine both constitutional privacy principles and the historical tradition of protecting gun owners’ personal information.”
Gun rights advocates and those concerned with privacy and the Constitution will watch this case closely as it advances.
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