SACRAMENTO, CA (April 7, 2017) — Following today’s Senate confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the United States Supreme Court, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) released the following statement:

On this momentous occasion, we wish to thank Senate Majority Leader McConnell for his courageous leadership throughout this trying process, President Donald J. Trump for fulfilling his promise, and all of the Senators who voted to confirm Judge Gorsuch to our nation’s highest court. We also wish to thank the thousands upon thousands of Americans who used their voice and our grassroots activism tools to support the Senate’s confirmation of Judge Gorsuch.

Since the Supreme Court’s landmark D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago decisions, many lower courts have rebelled against these decisions and, in so doing, denied tens of millions of law-abiding Americans their fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms.

At the forefront of this resistance is the lower courts’ refusal to follow the Court’s command, made in Heller and reiterated in McDonald, that Second Amendment claims are not to be judged by unrestrained judicial interest balancing.

Indeed, as the Supreme Court said in Heller, “The very enumeration of the right takes out of the hands of government—even the Third Branch of Government—the power to decide on a case-by-case basis whether the right is really worth insisting upon.”

The Senate’s prudent confirmation of Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court may very well have helped to avoid a serious constitutional crisis and put the Second Amendment back on the path of protecting something more than a second-class right.

Many appropriate vehicles for the Supreme Court to once more weigh in on Second Amendment rights—and correct the lower courts’ improper interest balancing approach to scrutinizing gun owner civil rights cases—are now or will soon be pending the Court’s consideration of a petition for certiorari.  We look forward to participating in these cases with a full Supreme Court and Justice Gorsuch on the bench.

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3/20/2017 FPC letter to Senate Judiciary Cmte re Confirmation of Neil Gorsuch

3/31/2017 FPC letter to Sens. McConnell, Schumer re Confirmation of Neil Gorsuch

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The following senators voted “yes” to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court:

  • R - Mitch McConnell (Ky.)
  • R - John Hoeven (N.D.)
  • R - John McCain (Ariz.)
  • R - Rand Paul (Ky.)
  • R - Bob Corker (Tenn.)
  • R - Mike Lee (Utah)
  • R - John Thune (S.D.)
  • R - Tom Cotton (Ark.)
  • R - James Lankford (Okla.)
  • R - Ted Cruz (Tex.)
  • R - Rob Portman (Ohio)
  • R - James M. Inhofe (Okla.)
  • R - Bill Cassidy (La.)
  • R - Jim Risch (Idaho)
  • R - Thad Cochran (Miss.)
  • R - Richard C. Shelby (Ala.)
  • R - Todd Young (Ind.)
  • R - Roger Wicker (Miss.)
  • R - Patrick J. Toomey Pa.)
  • R - Thom Tillis (N.C.)
  • R - Dan Sullivan (Alaska)
  • R - Luther Strange (Ala.)
  • R - Tim Scott (S.C.)
  • R - Ben Sasse (Neb.)
  • R - Marco Rubio (Fla.)
  • R - Michael Rounds (S.D.)
  • R - Pat Roberts (Kan.)
  • R - David Perdue (Ga.)
  • R - Lisa Murkowski (Alaska)
  • R - Jerry Moran (Kan.)
  • R - John Kennedy (La.)
  • R - Ron Johnson (Wis.)
  • R - Dean Heller (Nev.)
  • R - Orrin G. Hatch (Utah)
  • R - Charles E. Grassley (Iowa)
  • R - Lindsey Graham (S.C.)
  • R - Cory Gardner (Colo.)
  • R - Jeff Flake (Ariz.)
  • R - Deb Fischer (Neb.)
  • R - Joni Ernst (Iowa)
  • R - Michael B. Enzi (Wyo.)
  • R - Steve Daines (Mont.)
  • R - Michael D. Crapo (Idaho)
  • R - John Cornyn (Tex.)
  • R - Susan Collins (Me.)
  • R - Shelley Moore Capito (W.Va.)
  • R - Richard M. Burr (N.C.)
  • R - John Boozman (Ark.)
  • R - Roy Blunt (Mo.)
  • R - John Barrasso (Wyo.)
  • R - Lamar Alexander (Tenn.)
  • D - Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.)
  • D - Joe Manchin III (W.Va.)
  • D - Joe Donnelly (Ind.)

Firearms Policy Coalition (www.firearmspolicy.org) is a 501(c)4 grassroots nonprofit organization.  FPC’s mission is to defend the Constitution of the United States, especially the fundamental, individual Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, through advocacy, legal action, education, and outreach.