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“If you want to say we’re
pushing the envelope on these
things, then yeah, we are,” said
Gottlieb. “But we’re doing it in
a way that we’re confident we’re
going to be able to win.”
Prior to the 2008 Heller decision, the NRA’s Civil Rights Defense Fund was the only major
player in U.S. gun litigation, with
a multimillion-dollar budget and
a team of top-flight lawyers ready
to assist promising cases as they
moved up through appellate courts.
Litigation was never the NRA’s
HUFFINGTON
04.07.13
top priority, however, and it still
isn’t. Every year, the NRA pours
tens of millions of dollars more
into elections and influencing legislation at state and federal levels
than it does into fighting court
cases. Whereas the SAF has made
a name for itself since Heller by
proactively attacking gun regulations in court, the NRA has focused on preventing the passage of
gun control laws in the first place.
For the NRA, litigation is only
one piece of an overall plan, Klukowski explained, one in which
“legislative efforts, administrative efforts, grassroots communication, and participation in the
Paul
Clement,
the NRA’s
appellate
lawyer and
former
solicitor
general of
the United
States,
poses for a
portrait in
2012.