Just before it became illegal to own military-style assault weapons in California about three years ago, Gary Gorski went shopping. The suburban Sacramento lawyer already had one high-powered rifle sitting in his home safe, but he rushed out to buy seven more. Just on principle.
He consulted gun advocates -- what were they going to do about this ban, what advice did they have? -- but no one pledged support. So, by himself, he hunkered down in his small office and cranked out a lawsuit to overturn the assault weapons ban.
"No one is backing me on this," Gorski said the other day, about a week after the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled against him. Not even the state gun lobby, gun owners' associations or the NRA are stepping in to help him fight what many feel is a futile attempt to challenge the ban on Second Amendment grounds before the federal court in San Francisco. One gun lobbyist calls some of the vehement language in Gorski's appeals court brief "inflammatory and unwise."