The National Rifle Association filed a lawsuit Monday against San Francisco after the city recently declared the gun rights group a domestic terrorist organization.
The NRA alleges in its lawsuit that San Francisco is infringing on its freedom of speech and attempting to “blacklist anyone linked to the NRA.” The suit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
“This lawsuit comes with a message to those who attack the NRA: We will never stop fighting for our law-abiding members and their constitutional freedoms,” NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre said in a statement on the lawsuit.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a resolution last week declaring the NRA a domestic terrorist organization. The resolution accused the organization of inciting gun violence and arming those who carry out domestic terrorist attacks in the country.
“All countries have violent and hateful people, but only in America do we give them ready access to assault weapons and large-capacity magazines thanks, in large part, to the National Rifle Association’s influence,” the resolution read, citing gun violence statistics including that about 100 people in the U.S. are killed with guns every day while hundreds more are wounded.
San Francisco also called on other cities, states and the federal government to join the city in designating the group as a domestic terrorist organization. The resolution’s passage came after a wave of mass shootings in Gilroy, California; El Paso, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; and Odessa, Texas.
Supervisor Catherine Stefani introduced the measure July 30 after the deadly mass shooting at a garlic festival in Gilroy, which left three dead and 17 injured, not including the shooter, who killed himself. Stefani is named individually and in her own capacity in the lawsuit. She did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
The NRA’s lawsuit said that San Francisco’s efforts are similar to actions by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Los Angeles City Council in attempting “to coerce businesses to cut ties with the NRA.” The NRA had a lawsuit against Cuomo and other top New York officials after the Democratic governor told financial services in the state to “weight [the] reputational risk of business ties to the NRA.” The gun lobby also legally challenged L.A. after the city passed an ordinance requiring city contractors to disclose ties with the NRA.
Amid the list of lawsuits, the NRA is also facing collapse from within due to financial mismanagement. Six NRA board members have resigned from the gun group just this year.