Mountain States Legal Foundation announced the creation of a new center of legal excellence within the firm focused exclusively on fighting for Americans’ besieged Second Amendment protected rights. 

On October 14, MSLF announced a fundraising drive to help establish the new Center to Keep and Bear Arms, buoyed by an anonymous California benefactor who promised to match every donation, dollar-for-dollar, up to $75,000. The announcement of officially launching the center,  signaled success of the fundraiser.  

“The grassroots response to the challenge has been so strong that we’re prepared to announce the Center’s launch today, even though donations continue to arrive on a daily basis,” said MSLF Attorney Cody J. Wisniewski, who will spearhead the effort. “This was all planned long before Election Day, given the unprecedented threats to gun rights emerging at the state and local level. But there’s no question that the prospect of a Biden-Harris administration has heightened the sense of urgency among gun owners, given the Democratic Party platform’s clear and avowed hostility toward gun rights.” 

MSLF has a history of taking major gun rights cases, in keeping with its longstanding mission in support of constitutionally protected rights and individual freedoms. The creation of the Center to Keep and Bear Arms signals an increased commitment to protecting the rights of firearms owners. 

“This will be the only in-house, litigation-only Second Amendment operation in the United States,” explained Wisniewski. It will build on current cases like Caldara v. Boulder and past MSLF successes, including in Nesbitt v. Army Corp of Engineers. and Aragon v. Grisham.“As the name makes explicit, the Center will focus on challenging unconstitutional gun laws on behalf of Americans on three fronts: your right to keep firearms, your right to bear them on your person, and your right to choose which arms you need in order to defend yourself.” 

MSLF President and CEO Cristen Wohlgemuth remarked that the founding of the Center is in response to the recognition that gun rights today face unprecedented threats.  “The threat to the Second Amendment has never been more palpable than it is today,” said Wohlgemuth. “Attacks that used to be incremental and implicit now have become brazenly explicit, making it clear that gun confiscation and not just ‘gun control is part of the progressive-left’s agenda.That makes this the right time to create a specialty litigation Center, under the MSLF umbrella, in order to focus the in-house expertise we have on this issue.”