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Everytown Law Launches New Litigation Center to Defend Gun Safety Laws

7.7.2022

Expanded Team Will Provide Litigation Expertise and Legal Resources to State and Local Governments Defending Gun Safety Laws in Wake of Supreme Court’s Second Amendment Decision in NYSRPA v. Bruen

Advisory Board Includes Leading Constitutional Law Practitioners and Academics 

New YorkEverytown Law today announced the launch of the Everytown Center for the Defense of Gun Safety to assist state Attorneys General and local government lawyers in defending against Second Amendment challenges to gun safety laws. The new project of Everytown Law follows the Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which changes the way courts will have to evaluate challenges to gun safety laws and launches a new chapter in Second Amendment litigation. More about the case and the Court’s decision can be found here

“The Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen is wrong and dangerous, and its full implications are yet to be seen. One thing is clear: the decision marks the beginning of a new chapter in defending gun safety laws, and with this new Center, Everytown intends to lead the way in shaping post-Bruen jurisprudence alongside our allies and partners,” said Eric Tirschwell, Executive Director of Everytown Law. 

“Gun violence prevention is one of the most important issues we face as a society, and we will bring all our resources to bear on defending gun safety laws against the gun lobby’s attacks,” said Janet Carter and William Taylor, Everytown Law Co-Chairs of the Center. “Reasonable gun safety laws are consistent with the Second Amendment, and we look forward to marshaling the arguments in defense of these life-saving laws wherever challenges may be filed.”

“We’re proud to stand together in defense of gun safety laws – especially with gun violence on the rise across the country,” said the Center’s advisory board members. “There’s never been a more important time to fight in the courts to keep our communities safe.”

The Center will be dedicated to the development of critically important post-Bruen Second Amendment jurisprudence and preserving the ability of state and local governments to enact and enforce life-saving gun safety laws. Everytown Law has been preparing for a history-focused analysis for over a decade—including filing dozens of amicus briefs setting out historical arguments—leaving the Center well placed to explain the constitutionality of gun safety laws under Bruen’s analysis. 

The Center will be led by Everytown Law co-Chairs Janet Carter, an appellate and constitutional law expert and former law clerk to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, and William Taylor, a seasoned litigator who served as lead counsel on numerous Second Amendment cases at the New York Attorney General’s Office before joining Everytown in 2018, alongside Mark Frassetto, Deputy Director for Second Amendment History and Scholarship and a leading scholar of the Anglo-American history of gun regulation. Three Constitutional Law Fellows will complete the Center’s staff.  

The Center will be advised by a group of leading constitutional scholars, litigators, and policy experts. The initial members of the Advisory Board are:  

Carey Dunne, former General Counsel at the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, former partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell, LLP, and former President of the New York City Bar Association.  

Jamal Greene, Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia Law School and author of How Rights Went Wrong: Why Our Obsession With Rights Is Tearing America Apart.

Caitlin Halligan, partner at Selendy Gay Elsberg PLLC and former Solicitor General of the State of New York.

Andrew Weissmann, Professor of Practice at NYU School of Law. Mr. Weissmann previously served as a lead prosecutor in Robert S. Mueller’s Special Counsel’s Office, as Chief of the Fraud Section in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and as General Counsel of the FBI.

The Center’s attorneys will offer their expertise and litigation support to state and local governments on a pro bono basis. The announcement of the Center will be accompanied by the launch of new online litigation resources, compiling materials to assist government lawyers in defending gun safety laws against Second Amendment challenges—including selections of historical gun laws, cases, academic articles, and social science.