Federal Judge Finds Ban on Guns in Post Offices is Unconstitutional

AmmoLand ^ | January 16, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

On September 14, 2022, at a postal facility in Tampa, Florida, Postal Inspector agents tried to apprehend Emmanuel Ayala, an employee of the postal service, for carrying a firearm on postal premises, which is against the law as per 18 U.S.C. § 930(a). Ayala had a valid Florida Concealed Carry Permit. He often carried a 9mm pistol in a fanny pack for self-defense.

Ayala fled from postal inspector agents, so a resisting arrest charge was included. An indictment was filed more than a month later. A warrant was issued on October 27th, and Ayala was arrested on November 16, 2022.  Counsel was appointed and Ayala was released from custody on the same day, and discovery was ordered in the case.

Ayala filed a motion to dismiss the case, citing the Supreme Court Bruen decision on January 5, 2023. The Bruen decision restored Second Amendment rights, which have been infringed for several decades.

On January 12, 2024, United States District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle filed the order dismissing the charge of possessing a firearm in a federal facility as violating Ayala’s Second Amendment rights. From the order on courtlistener:

The United States indicted Emmanuel Ayala, a postal worker, for possessing a firearm in a Federal facility in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 930(a). Ayala argues that statute is unconstitutional as applied to him because the historical record does not support a law banning firearms in post offices. See N.Y. State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022). Relying on dicta from earlier cases, the United States responds that the Second Amendment allows it to punish the bearing of arms inside any government building. But the Supreme Court has been clear: the government must point to historical principles that would permit it to prohibit firearms possession in

[marktwain]

Guns were first banned in post offices in 1972. No history of bans in post offices before then.

Many of our unconstitutional infringements stem from the middle 1960's and later.

[MtnClimber]

What better place to carjack someone than when they are leaving a Post Office.

[FreedomPoster]

Isn’t the history that this was done because of Postal employees “going postal”?

Is my timeline correct?

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

United States District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle. A Donald Trump lifetime appointment. Elections have consequences.

[Fury]

Re: 4 - It’s all good until the foot-stomping crowd disagrees with one of her decisions. Then it’s “she’s Deep State!” or “they have incriminating evidence about her” and on and on.

[SecondAmendment]

> Re: 4 - It’s all good until the foot-stomping crowd disagrees with one of her decisions. Then it’s “she’s Deep State!” or “they have incriminating evidence about her” and on and on.

We now have more than enough datapoints to show Judges veer leftward over time.

Methinks this is because of the profession, lawyers and judges believe they are the enlightened class and are entitled to make decisions for everyone else, and unfortunately we have allowed them to do so.

[marktwain]

“Going Postal” didn’t happen until 1986, when Patrick Sherrill committed mass murder at the Edmond, Oklahoma post office.

[Hiddigeigei]

"Guns were first banned in post offices in 1972. No history of bans in post offices before then."

I remember seeing the post master at the Forest Glen Station in Maryland with a revolver openly carried in a holster on his side when I was a very young kid in the 1930s. It looked big to me, I think it was a 45 cal. M1917 military.