Ban on guns in post offices is unconstitutional, US judge rules
13/01/2024 14:36
By Nate Raymond
Jan 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge in Florida on Friday
ruled that a U.S. law that bars people from possessing firearms
in post offices is unconstitutional, citing a landmark U.S.
Supreme Court ruling from 2022 that expanded gun rights.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, an appointee of
Republican former President Donald Trump in Tampa, reached that
conclusion in dismissing part of an indictment charging a postal
worker with illegally possessing a gun in a federal facility.
Mizelle said that charge violated Emmanuel Ayala's right to
keep and bear arms under the U.S. Constitution's Second
Amendment, saying "a blanket restriction on firearms possession
in post offices is incongruent with the American tradition of
firearms regulation."
She declined to dismiss a separate charge for forcibly
resisting arrest. Ayala's lawyer and a U.S. Justice Department
spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
The decision marked the latest court decision declaring a
gun restriction unconstitutional following the
conservative-majority Supreme Court's June 2022 ruling in New
York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
That ruling recognized for the first time that the Second
Amendment protects an individual's right to carry a handgun in
public for self-defense. It also established a new test for
assessing firearms laws, saying restrictions must be "consistent
with this nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."
Ayala, a U.S. Postal Service truck driver in Tampa, had a
concealed weapons permit and kept a Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun
in a fanny pack for self-defense, his lawyers said.
He was indicted after prosecutors said he brought the gun
onto Postal Service property in 2012 and fled federal agents who
tried to detain him.
He was charged under a statute that broadly prohibits
possessing a firearm in a federal facility, including a post
office.
Mizelle said that while post offices have existed since the
nation's founding, federal law did not bar guns in government
buildings until 1964 and post offices until 1972. No historical
practice dating back to the 1700s justified the ban, she said.
Mizelle said allowing the federal government to restrict
visitors from bringing guns into government facilities as a
condition of admittance would allow it to "abridge the right to
bear arms by regulating it into practical non-existence."
(Reporting by Nate Raymond in Boston; Editing by Diane Craft)
((Nate.Raymond@thomsonreuters.com and Twitter @nateraymond;
347-243-6917; Reuters Messaging:
nate.raymond.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))