Multiple gun control groups were represented in a rally outside of the Supreme Court on Monday as the court heard oral arguments in the first gun rights case it has taken in almost a decade. The pro-gun control activists were demanding the Supreme Court justices throw out the case.
Despite the rain and 40-degree weather, activists with Everytown for Gun Safety, Moms Demand Action, March for Our Lives, and Giffords rallied to voice their opposition not just to the case, but to their concerns that the conservative majority on the court will overturn many gun control laws.
The lawsuit is over a New York City law that prohibited gun owners from carrying a licensed, locked, and unloaded handgun outside the city limits, with exceptions for travel to a shooting range or second home. Gun control activists said the court should not hear the suit since the law was later repealed at both the city and state level.
A few pro-gun rights activists were among the crowd, holding signs that read, "Criminals prefer gun-free zones."
Borrowing a similar phrase from gun rights activists, the gun control crowd repeatedly chanted, "Gun laws save lives."
The pro-gun control groups here include Giffords, Everytown for Gun Safety, and March For Our Lives. They have chanted: Gun laws save lives! pic.twitter.com/mIYWseJVF8
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) December 2, 2019
A pro-gun control Air Force veteran says the Supreme Court should interpret the 2A as it was intended: "A well regulated militia does not mean an unregulated armed populace." pic.twitter.com/iJ6TSZixBX
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) December 2, 2019
Rep. Anthony Brown (D-MD) echoed to Townhall what the rally's speakers had been hammering all morning, that the Second Amendment must have restrictions like the other amendments in the Bill of Rights.
"There's a right to bear arms, and the question is: What are the reasonable restrictions on that right?" Brown said. "There's freedom of speech...but certainly when it comes to speech there are restrictions, right? The classic example, you can't shout 'fire!' in a crowded movie theatre, and the same should apply to the Second Amendment."