U.S. Postal Service Parking Lot Gun Ban Unconstitutional

mountainstateslegal.org ^ | 9 July, 2013 | William Perry Pendley

[marktwain]

DENVER, CO.  A Colorado federal district court ruled today in favor of a Colorado man and a national gun rights group holding that a U.S. Postal Service regulation barring firearms in its parking lots violates their right to keep and bear arms under the Constitution.  The district court ruled, “openly carrying a firearm outside the home is a liberty protected by the Second Amendment [and the] parking lot adjacent to [Avon’s Post Office Building] is not a sensitive place [such that] an absolute ban on firearms is substantially related to [Defendants’] important public safety objective.”  Tab Bonidy, who is licensed to carry a handgun and regularly carries a handgun for self-defense, drives several miles from his home, where mail delivery is not available, to Avon to collect his mail.  On arrival in Avon, however, he is barred by federal regulation from carrying a firearm, or parking his vehicle if it contains a firearm, on Postal Service land.  In July 2010, Mr. Bonidy asked that the regulation be withdrawn; the Postal Service refused.  Mr. Bonidy and the National Association for Gun Rights filed their lawsuit in October 2010.

“We are pleased the court struck down the Postal Service’s regulation as it applies to the Avon parking lot,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation (MSLF); MSLF represents Mr. Bonidy and the group.

In 2007, the Postal Service renewed its total ban on firearms on Postal Service property, first promulgated in 1972: 

"Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, rule or regulation, no person while on Postal property may carry firearms, other dangerous or deadly weapons, or explosives, either openly or concealed, or store the same on Postal property, except for official purposes."

39 C.F.R. § 232.1(l).  This regulatory prohibition, which carries a fine, imprisonment for 30 days, or both, is broader than the federal statute, which prohibits private possession of firearms in federal facilities, except those firearms carried “incident to hunting or other lawful purposes.”  18 U.S.C. § 930(d)(3).  This statutory exception does not apply in federal court facilities, where a total ban is enforced.  18 U.S.C. § 930(e)(1).

The Postal Service’s total ban on firearms possession impairs the right to keep and bear arms as protected by the Second Amendment even when individuals are traveling to, from, or through Postal property because the Postal Service does not allow people to store a firearm safely in their vehicles.  Anyone with a hunting rifle or shotgun in his car, or a handgun in his glove compartment for self-defense, violates the Postal Service ban by driving onto Postal Service property.  Thus, the ban also denies the right to keep and bear arms everywhere a law-abiding gun owner travels before and after visiting Postal Service property.

 Mountain States Legal Foundation, founded in 1977, is a nonprofit, public-interest legal foundation dedicated to individual liberty, the right to own and use property, limited and ethical government, and the free enterprise system.  Its offices are in suburban Denver, Colorado. More about this case: Bonidy v. USPS

Read the Court's Order: MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER

[marktwain]

I do not know if this will be appealed, but it may add to the pressure for the Supreme Court to hear a case that upholds the right to bear arms outside of the home.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Privatize the post office.

[I want the USA back]

The ban is stupid - the criminal will not obey any ban.

[NonValueAdded]

Let’s not get carried away here, people! We still need a ban on Postal employees going, well, postal!

[thorvaldr]

“The ban is stupid - the criminal will not obey any ban.”
If you follow that logic, all gun bans are stupid. But, you are not the first one to make this observation:
“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes...Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” ~ Thomas Jefferson

[Don Corleone]

The ban is stupid - the criminal will not obey any ban.

Ref: U.S. laws and Obama or Holder

[CodeToad]

Excellent!

[Cuttnhorse]

Mountain States Legal Foundation is a very good group and have a history of winning cases in the western US.

[marktwain]

Thomas Jefferson was quoting Cesare Beccaria’s Essay on Crimes and Punishments.

So, it is not exactly an original Thomas Jefferson quote.

http://www.imakehippiescry.com/2010/12/27/an-unarmed-man-may-be-attacked-with-greater-confidence/

[Travis McGee]

CO ping

[rawhide]

Do the people who openly carry, like in Arizona, openly carry the holstered guns into the Post Office? You see people everywhere openly carrying holstered guns.

[SERE_DOC]

ban on Postal employees going, well, postal!

Yea that whole concept..... going postal

I would never go "Postal"

I hate amateurs!

[ArrogantBustard]

We still need a ban on Postal employees going, well, postal!

We already have that.

Murder is illegal. Assault with a deadly weapon is illegal. Reckless endangerment is illegal. Brandishing a weapon is illegal.

WE DO NOT NEED MORE LAWS!

[pax_et_bonum]

Ping

[NonValueAdded]

my humor too subtle?

[TangoLimaSierra]

I don’t care where it is; if there’s no metal detector, I carry.

[SERE_DOC]

Lawyers, can ya trust them?

Lets look at the law and definitions, you will find that they (legal types) are FOS.

If one was to actually crack open the code, you "Legally" can carry a "Pistol" or a rifle" into any place in the United States, but using "their definition" against them..... I respectfully submit Title 27 CFR:

§ 479.11 Meaning of terms.

Firearm. (a) A shotgun having a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length; (b) a weapon made from a shotgun if such weapon as modified has an overall length of less than 26 inches or a barrel or barrels of less than 18 inches in length; (c) a rifle having a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length; (d) a weapon made from a rifle if such weapon as modified has an overall length of less than 26 inches or a barrel or barrels of less than 16 inches in length; (e) any other weapon, as defined in this subpart; (f) a machine gun; (g) a muffler or a silencer for any firearm whether or not such firearm is included within this definition; and (h) a destructive device. The term shall not include an antique firearm or any device (other than a machine gun or destructive device) which, although designed as a weapon, the Director finds by reason of the date of its manufacture, value, design, and other characteristics is primarily a collector's item and is not likely to be used as a weapon. For purposes of this definition, the length of the barrel having an integral chamber(s) on a shotgun or rifle shall be determined by measuring the distance between the muzzle and the face of the bolt, breech, or breech block when closed and when the shotgun or rifle is cocked. The overall length of a weapon made from a shotgun or rifle is the distance between the extreme ends of the weapon measured along a line parallel to the center line of the bore.

Title 27 CFR

And nothing other than what is defined is a "Firearm"

[CodeToad]

At least something good came out of this place.

[Red in Blue PA]

Excellent news! Thanks for posting MT.

[laplata]

Thanks, pax.