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Packing Services: Federal Judge Rules Ban on Guns in Post Offices is Unconstitutional
Jonathan Turley blog ^ | 01/14/24 | Jonathan Turley

Posted on 01/14/2024 11:38:40 AM PST by zeugma

In Florida, U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle has ruled that the federal law prohibiting people from possessing firearms inside post offices is unconstitutional. The ruling is based on the 2022 Supreme Court ruling New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen recognized a person’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.

The case concerned Emmanuel Ayala, a U.S. Postal Service truck driver, who had a concealed weapons permit and held a Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun in a fanny pack for self-defense. When police tried to stop him, he ran and struggled with officers. While dismissing the possession count, Judge Mizelle left the charge on forcibly resisting arrest.

The provision at 18 U.S. Code § 930 states in part that “whoever knowingly possesses or causes to be present a firearm or other dangerous weapon in a Federal facility (other than a Federal court facility), or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both.”

Judge Mizelle noted that the law stands in conflict with the Bruen decision. In the course of the litigation, the Justice Department conceded that “[t]here is no evidence of firearms being prohibited at post offices, specifically, or of postal workers being prohibited from carrying them, at the time of the founding.”

Indeed, the government acknowledged that relatively limited firearms prohibitions did not appear “until the mid-twentieth century—over 170 years after the founding.”

The court proceeded to lay out an extensive historical and policy review of the basis for such a ban. It also noted that the sweeping meaning of this provision:

[The] legal principle cannot be used to abridge the right to bear arms by regulating it into practical non-existence. See Baude & Leider, supra, at 35 (identifying this as “probably the most important [Second Amendment] principle”). For example, take the criminal statute here: It bans knowingly possessing a firearm in a Federal facility, which is defined as “a building or part thereof owned or leased by the Federal Government, where Federal employees are regularly present for the purpose of performing their official duties.” 18 U.S.C. § 930(g)(1). The plain language captures everything from the White House to toll booths in national parks to Social Security Administration buildings. Under this criminal statute, with the proliferation of the federal government comes the diminution of the People’s right to bear arms. At some point, when twenty-eight percent of land in the United States is owned by the federal government and many ordinary activities require frequenting a “Federal facility,” the government’s theory would amount to a nullification of the Second Amendment right altogether.

Ultimately, despite allowing for supplemental briefing, Judge Mizelle expressed frustration with the Biden Administration’s use of generalities and unsupported claims to justify this rule: “I repeat the United States’ single line on this point: “Ayala certainly cannot show that the Second Amendment prevents the government from prohibiting its own employees from bringing guns to work.” Id. That is all. No citation, no authority, no reasoning.”

In the end, the court felt it had no alternative but to declare the law unconstitutional as inconsistent “with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Given the implications of this ruling (not just for postal facilities but all federal facilities), it could well make its way to the Supreme Court.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 2ndamendment; armedcitizen; banglist; concealedcarry; guncontrol; guns; postoffice; postoffices; rkba; secondamendment; selfdefense; usps
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My question: How can you be charged with 'resisting arrest' for an unconstitutional law?

Read the entire decision here:
United States v. Ayala

1 posted on 01/14/2024 11:38:40 AM PST by zeugma
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To: zeugma

The Left will be filling their diapers like a Biden over this...


2 posted on 01/14/2024 11:44:00 AM PST by kiryandil (Rocco is roccking again!!)
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To: zeugma

He resisted the soldiers of the King.


3 posted on 01/14/2024 11:44:34 AM PST by kiryandil (Rocco is roccking again!!)
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To: zeugma

In order to be arrested for resisting arrest, time travel is clearly required.


4 posted on 01/14/2024 11:47:13 AM PST by coloradan (They're not the mainstream media, they're the gaslight media. It's what they do. )
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To: zeugma

On a related note, I occasionally follow online discussions concerning possession of a firearm while in a post office parking lot. Say a guy pulls up to a drop-off mail box in the lot. He’s going hunting, and has a rifle in the rifle rack of his truck. Some cop or postal inspector notices that. Can the cop legally arrest the truck guy?

The answer seems to be yes. Truck guy is in trouble. Hopefully this latest ruling will help to fix that.


5 posted on 01/14/2024 11:50:57 AM PST by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: zeugma
Being forced to leave your gun in the car does not make anyone safer.

6 posted on 01/14/2024 11:55:41 AM PST by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty)
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To: zeugma
My question: How can you be charged with 'resisting arrest' for an unconstitutional law?

Because resisting arrest has nothing to do with the constitutionality or the rectitude of the law under which you're arrested. It's a completely different thing. Unless you're a sovereign citizen, of course.

7 posted on 01/14/2024 12:00:04 PM PST by Mr Ramsbotham ("God is a spirit, and man His means of walking on the earth.")
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To: BitWielder1

> Being forced to leave your gun in the car does not make anyone safer. <

As I noted in my post #5, if that car is in the post office parking lot you are still breaking the law (I think). I have to say “I think” because there seems to be no firm consensus on that.

Most online law firms who talk about this parking lot thing say you are in trouble. But not all of them do. So if lawyers can’t agree, how can a citizen know what to do? I suppose it’s best to play it safe. The wrong cop would just love to make your life miserable.


8 posted on 01/14/2024 12:16:19 PM PST by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: zeugma

I thought the purpose of the law was to protect citizens from post office workers who were at risk of “going postal.”


9 posted on 01/14/2024 12:16:19 PM PST by Flatus I. Maximus (You can vote your way into Socialism, but you have to shoot your way out of it.)
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To: zeugma

Resisting arrest can’t be the primary charge.


10 posted on 01/14/2024 12:21:54 PM PST by Paleo Conservative
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To: Flatus I. Maximus
I thought the purpose of the law was to protect citizens from post office workers who were at risk of “going postal.”

I gotta be the straight man for that comic line.

No, the purpose of all "gun control" laws is to disarm law-abiding citizens. That is because politicians are doing things to ordinary citizens for which they rightly fear that ordinary citizens might shoot them.

The "gun controllers" never miss an excuse to impose more restrictions. It is about "Public Safety". Theirs, not yours.

11 posted on 01/14/2024 12:29:12 PM PST by flamberge (Nothing can ruin a perfectly good theory as well as data.)
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To: Flatus I. Maximus
I thought the purpose of the law was to protect citizens from post office workers who were at risk of “going postal.”

Indeed. I recall that.

12 posted on 01/14/2024 12:33:45 PM PST by zeugma (Stop deluding yourself that America is still a free country.)
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To: All

Seeing as Mailmen getting jumped by local “youths” is a semi regular occurrence maybe they should all carry guns


13 posted on 01/14/2024 1:01:38 PM PST by escapefromboston (Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.)
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To: Leaning Right

What if the gun was in the trunk?


14 posted on 01/14/2024 1:22:28 PM PST by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: Jeff Chandler

> What if the gun was in the trunk? [in a post office parking lot] <

According to what I’ve read, you’re still breaking federal law. But of course the police would have to have a reason to search your car first.

What’s the chance of that happening in one visit, or in a thousand visits? Pretty darn low. Still it’s a shame a citizen has to worry about such things in the first place.


15 posted on 01/14/2024 1:29:58 PM PST by Leaning Right (The steal is real.)
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To: BitWielder1

I remember getting my Iowa professional CCW & back then it was state law no guns in hospitals,casinos or Post offices cuz the mail man don’t need help Groton shooting his supervisor!😎


16 posted on 01/14/2024 2:09:09 PM PST by Nebr FAL owner (Treason is the reason for Democrat Sedition & subvertion )
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To: BitWielder1

I remember getting my Iowa professional CCW & back then it was state law no guns in hospitals,casinos or Post offices cuz the mail man don’t need help shooting his supervisor!😎


17 posted on 01/14/2024 2:11:11 PM PST by Nebr FAL owner (Treason is the reason for Democrat Sedition & subvertion )
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To: BitWielder1

I remember getting my Iowa professional CCW & back then it was state law no guns in hospitals,casinos or Post offices cuz the mail man don’t need help shooting his supervisor!😎 (fixed it)


18 posted on 01/14/2024 2:12:29 PM PST by Nebr FAL owner (Treason is the reason for Democrat Sedition & subvertion )
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To: zeugma
Easy on the eyes:


19 posted on 01/14/2024 2:12:52 PM PST by nwrep
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To: zeugma

The security guard at the Social Security office said I couldn’t bring my average sized pocket knife in because it was a federal facility. Really? Maybe this will end that foolishness.


20 posted on 01/14/2024 2:27:06 PM PST by Clay Moore (My pistol identifies as a cordless hole punch. )
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