Kennedy Wins Major 2nd Amendment Victory As Ventura County Will Now Allow Gun Stores To Reopen

County Backs Down Just Before Expediated Federal Hearing Over Issue. End Quote

Ventura, CA (1888PressRelease) May 16, 2020 - Today Ronda Kennedy, the Republican nominee for U.S. Congress in CA 26, announced that she has won a major victory for 2nd Amendment advocates in her groundbreaking lawsuit against Ventura County, California with Ventura County conceding defeat and allowing gun stores to reopen in the county. This move came just as Kennedy was preparing to argue the case before Federal District Court Judge Consuelo B. Marshall in expediated hearing. Ventura County had held that gun stores are non-essential businesses and under the state ordered shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic must close. Kennedy filed her case on behalf of gun owners, who purchased guns, following background checks, but were unable to pick up their guns due to the store closures., and also individual citizens who wanted to purchase guns. Kennedy had argued that Ventura County’s action was a clear violation of the Second Amendment and an attempt to use a health pandemic to force a political agenda upon law-abiding citizens. She pointed out that both San Diego County and Los Angeles County (one of the most anti-Second Amendment counties in the nation) have deemed gun stores as essential businesses. This is essentially a ban on the sale of firearms in Ventura County. Under the County’s Stay Well At Home order enacted March 20,2020, gun store owners could be put in jail for opening. Now with Ventura County conceding defeat, gun stores may reopen and law-abiding citizens may now exercise their Second Amendment Rights. Kennedy pointed out that her opponent, an incumbent congresswoman did nothing to help her constituents keep their Constitutional rights. She also questioned if the timing of Ventura County’s decision was not done to provide cover and comfort for Congresswoman Brownley who was AWOL from this issue as she has also been from largely missing from her District throughout her term.

“Today was a great victory for believers in the Second Amendment and our Constitution,” said Ronda Kennedy, Republican candidate for California’s Twenty-Sixth District. “Ventura County realized they were violating the Constitution and would lose in the expediated hearing before Judge Marshall. Rather than lose in Court they backed down and took the right and legal action.

“This entire case should never have happened,” continued Kennedy. “And it would not have happened save for the fact that the County sought to use this pandemic to enact its political agenda of stripping lawful citizens of their Constitutional rights. We won today but this entire case shows why we must be ever vigilant of an overreaching government. Had Ventura County succeeded and not backed down what other Constitutional right might they take away next?”

Kennedy’s clients in the case were backed and joined by Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and California Gun Rights Foundation (CGF). The defendants in the case include Ventura County Sheriff William “Bill” Ayub, William T. Foley, the Director of the Ventura County Public Health Care Agency, Robert Levin, the Public Health Medical Director and Health Officer for Defendant County of Ventura, and the County of Ventura, California.

Ronda Kennedy is currently a practicing lawyer in Ventura County as well as the Dean of a California law school. She lives in Oak Park with her husband Michael and her seven year-old triplets, Annabel, Bianca, and Liam.

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