The National Rifle Association, or NRA, is suing San Francisco after the city labeled the group a “domestic terrorist organization,” CNN reports.
Last week, as reported at the time by The Inquisitr , San Francisco’s government passed a resolution that, among other things, calls on the city and San Francisco County to “take every reasonable step to limit” San Francisco’s “financial and contractual relationships” with vendors who do business with the NRA.
The action is “mostly symbolic,” writes San Francisco’s KPIX-TV , with little actual legal meaning and even less of an enforcement apparatus.
Nevertheless, the NRA has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming that the resolution “blacklists” anyone who is connected to the organization.
“[The NRA’s] members and supporters will suffer irrecoverable loss and irreparable harm if the members and supporters are unable to obtain government contracts because of their constitutionally-protected rights, or if the NRA is deprived of vendor, contractor, member or donor relationships when persons intimidated by the Resolution sever their NRA ties,” claims the suit.
In a statement, NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre said that the suit sends a message to NRA opponents.
“We will never stop fighting for our law-abiding members and their constitutional freedoms,” he said.
JUST IN: NRA sues San Francisco over city declaring it a domestic terrorist organization https://t.co/hfh3kcrE10 pic.twitter.com/y2f3ojSPAU
— The Hill (@thehill) September 10, 2019
However, San Francisco Supervisor Catherine Stefani said in a statement that the NRA’s lawsuit is just another last-ditch effort at trying to maintain legitimacy as the organization sputters towards irrelevance. She claims that the organization is losing members, losing money, and facing a “Russian spy scandal.”
Stefani appeared to have been referring to the case of Maria Butina. Butina, as Bloomberg reports, was sentenced in August for failing to register in the U.S. as an agent of a foreign government. The Russian woman had befriended powerful Republicans and NRA figures in the run-up to the 2016 election. Whether or not she was a spy, however, is a matter of opinion, and by some rights she was simply an overly-enthusiastic gun-rights supporter. That was certainly the claim made by the Russian government.
Maria Butina is a political prisoner, a victim of repressive #US ?? justice norms and a provocation masterminded by the U.S. special services. We insist on our compatriot’s innocence. We demand her immediate release.
?? https://t.co/AbiBvqTeHE ? @statedeptspox pic.twitter.com/8fPCzUVoed
— Russian Embassy in USA ?? (@RusEmbUSA) April 26, 2019
In addition to its purported financial and membership woes, the NRA is also in the midst of something of a leadership crisis. Its previous leader, Oliver North, stepped down in August, and its chief lobbyist left the organization two months prior to North’s departure.
Meanwhile, the Attorneys General of New York and Washington, D.C. are both reportedly looking into whether or not the agency’s activities violate the provisions of its status as a non-profit group.
