A federal judge in Florida ruled a U.S. law that prohibits people from having firearms in post offices to be unconstitutional, the latest court decision declaring gun restrictions violate the Constitution.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, a Trump appointee, cited the 2022 Supreme Court ruling “New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen” that expanded gun rights. The 2022 ruling recognized the individual’s right to bear a handgun in public for self-defense.
The judge shared her decision in the indictment that charged Emmanuel Ayala, U.S. Postal Service truck driver, with illegal possession of a firearm in a federal building.
This is a ridiculous ruling, but the reason the ban on guns in post offices makes many gun owners so angry is that unlike pretty much any other no-gun zone laws, it includes all of the property, including the parking lot.
So if a licensed person removes their gun and leaves it in the car so they can go into the post office, they’ve still committed a felony by parking there.
So instead they’ll park in the street. And if the lot is mostly empty and there’s a car parked in the street in front of the post office, it’s a bright neon sign to thieves that breaking into that car will score them a gun.
That’s common to all federal property though. I’ve literally never been to a federal property that wasn’t posted for no guns anywhere on the property.
Not all. They carved out an exception for National Parks that has the land adopting the rules of the state in which they’re located, with the firearm bans only in place in buildings. They need to do the same with Corps of Engineers parks and post offices.
So, the exception. And it’s wilderness area.
Wilderness Area is an entirely different designation from a national park. They aren’t administered by the park service but instead by the Forest Service and they don’t typically come with amenities/facilities apart from trailhead parking lots, usually a trail system and sometimes designated campsites and the like. Just FYI. Not that it really matters in this context.
Well yeah, except all of the interior land management agencies have wildernesses they mandate. Park, Forest, BLM, and even Fish and Wildlife.
Sooooo, you just leave your gun at home since there is no good reason to carry it around everywhere?
Seriously what’s up with Americans and police? In other countries people trust the police because frankly, they can, but also frankly, because they’re not insane. Yes, insane, because the obsession people have with guns is insane,and the obsession with safety and freedom is insane as well
It’s about consistency of laws. Depending on whether you park in the lot or 15-feet away in the street you’re either compliant with the law or subject to a 10-year prison sentence.
This is the problem with having an honest discussion about firearms policies. The reason gun owners refuse to work with the other side for some easy wins (universal background checks, expansion of NICS, enforcement of ownership restrictions, etc) is because the anti-gun crowd won’t take a minor victory and jumps straight to the “You’re a fucking crazy redneck” argument instead of talking about realistic solutions and what will be most effective. They let their idea of perfect be the enemy of good, while simultaneously making arguments from a place of profound ignorance regarding firearms, and the laws we do end up with in liberal states ban things like thumb-holes in stocks or require technology that doesn’t exist.
Straw purchases are still stupidly easy because the political left is frothing about firearms that are used in fewer homicides than blunt objects, a “gun show loophole” that doesn’t even exist (an FFL must still do background checks if selling off-site), and muzzle decides designed to prevent hearing damage from firearms that are still louder than a jackhammer.
Meanwhile 99-dollar zinc guns designed and used for murder are sold in piles to straw buyers who then sell them to convicted criminals and nothing is done about it.