Federal Court Says Interstate Ban of Handgun Sales Is Unconstitutuinal

[DR Owl Creek]

Big 2nd Amendment Victory!!!

Federal Judge Reed O'Connor handed down a decision on 2-11-15 stating that the federal interstate ban of sales of handguns under the Gun Control Act of 1968 is UNCONSTITUTIONAL. This ban barred a law-abiding citizen from buying a handgun from a retail FFL dealer in another state, but permitted the sale of long-arms.

For full story, go to: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/11/district-judge-rules-federal-interstate-handgun-sales-ban-unconstitutional/


Dave

[Love Life]

So....does this mean I can go to Florida and buy a handgun now? That would be da bomb.

[tomme boy]

That would be nice, but I don't see it happening.

[DR Owl Creek]

So....does this mean I can go to Florida and buy a handgun now? That would be da bomb.

I would imagine the Obama regime will be appealing this decision ASAP, and tying everything up in the federal court system for as long as possible. We're heading in the right direction though.

Dave

[cwheel]

Business at the Big Reno gun show is going to get crazy as the CA folks come over and buy the handguns that have been banned for sale in CA for years. A great gain for the people, but still lots of work to do on restoring the 2nd amendment.
Chris

[cheese1566]

that will be nice when we go on trips to other states and I find a decent souvenir!
Western South Dakota doesn't have much for used handguns at gunshops or pawnshops.

[FISH4BUGS]

Don't get too excited. This will be tied up in the courts for years, and Obama/Holder will issue an executive order nullifying it.
This is just another reasons he can't get out of there soon enough. It also illustrates the importance of appointing conservative judges everywhere.

[MtGun44]

It WILL happen. This law is clearly unconstitutional and is just one of the
many unconstitutional anti-gun laws that will be overturned, one or two at
a time in the upcoming years.

I would suggest that all who love gun rights spend some time at the
2nd Amendment Foundation site and send Alan Gottlieb some money to help
continue this fight. Alan Gottlieb has had genius lawyer Alan Gura steadily
rolling back gun control laws across the nation. You can thank them for
rolling back Chicago's ban on handgun ownership and for forcing Illinois
to create a CCW system. They also have forced District of Columbia to permit
guns to be available in their home (previously all guns had to be disassembled
to make them unusable for self defense INSIDE YOUR HOME), and now they
are requiring DC set up a concealed carry system - WHICH HAS SOME
WAY FOR NON-RESIDENTS TO CARRY.

The two Alans are about to get California's restrictive concealed carry law overturned much
like was done in Illinois, they have the ruling but Cali is just delaying and trying ANYTHING
to stop the inevitable. They have won a ruling in DC that it is unconstitutional to
not provide a way for non-residents (of a state or in that case the District of Columbia)
to be able to carry a concealed weapon, which provides the legal basis for a future ruling
requiring all states to recognize CCW permits from any state. Drip, drip, drip.

We are winning.

They have many more "irons in the fire" and Gura is winning them steadily.

We are slowly and surely regaining our 2nd Amendment rights.

Bill

[ballistim]

When/if it's made legal to purchase in another state, won't there still be issues traveling through certain states after making the purchase? I'm asking because I truthfully don't know.

[MtGun44]

Currently, travel through states is controlled by federal law which says that you may travel
with a gun unloaded and in a case, ammo separated.

Unfortunately, a few states, notably New Jersey, regularly violate the federal law and have
been getting away with it because the feds under the current gun-hating "Justice" Dept
refuse to enforce the law.

The good news is that the majority of states have no problem with an unloaded, cased (some
require locked) gun, separated from the ammunition stored in the trunk. It is a federal law
that this is OK, and very few states violate the federal law.

Even better, get a CCW and you can carry in the overwhelming majority of the states. I am
legal to carry a concealed weapon in all US states except CA, OR, IL, NY, NJ, Conn, NH, ME, Mass,
RI, Maryland and Hawaii - basically the looniest gun-hating states. All the normal states have
sorted this out in the last 20 years.

I really expect before this decade is out, we will have full CCW reciprocity in all states.

Bill

[cheese1566]

Currently the SD legislature has a bill that passed committee that will repeal the law requiring a concealed weapons permit. If it moves onward throughout the house and senate and signed, you would no longer need the permit to carry concealed. (Although they are darn easy to get,,, one small application and $20 and valid for several years.)

see how it goes.

Current SD law allows for open carry in public.

[ballistim]

Currently, travel through states is controlled by federal law which says that you may travel
with a gun unloaded and in a case, ammo separated.

Unfortunately, a few states, notably New Jersey, regularly violate the federal law and have
been getting away with it because the feds under the current gun-hating "Justice" Dept
refuse to enforce the law.

The good news is that the majority of states have no problem with an unloaded, cased (some
require locked) gun, separated from the ammunition stored in the trunk. It is a federal law
that this is OK, and very few states violate the federal law.

Even better, get a CCW and you can carry in the overwhelming majority of the states. I am
legal to carry a concealed weapon in all US states except CA, OR, IL, NY, Conn, NH, ME, Mass,
RI, Maryland and Hawaii - basically the looniest gun-hating states. All the normal states have
sorted this out in the last 20 years.

I really expect before this decade is out, we will have full CCW reciprocity in all states.

Bill

Thanks Bill,

I've taken and passed the test/course, just never filed my paperwork , might be time to get off my duff and get it done.

Tim

[MrWolf]

Currently the SD legislature has a bill that passed committee that will repeal the law requiring a concealed weapons permit. If it moves onward throughout the house and senate and signed, you would no longer need the permit to carry concealed. (Although they are darn easy to get,,, one small application and $20 and valid for several years.)

see how it goes.

Current SD law allows for open carry in public.

Bill, how did you manage NJ concealed or did you just forget to list it? I was under the impression very few were allowed to carry here unless former law enforcement and even then NJ was restrictive on outside LEO's.

Ron

[Idz]

My complaint with most of the gun laws is that they do nothing for public safety but do make firearms ownership more expensive. I disagree wholeheartedly with the democrats presumption that the people are too immature and too stupid to possess guns and that right should be restricted to a wealthy, elite, ruling class. The dem strategy is Registration, Taxation, Confiscation.

[dragon813gt]

I never knew I couldn't do this. I thought it had to be shipped to a FFL in your state where all the paperwork was handled. I realize this creates issues w/ banned guns and the like. Truth be told I don't leave my state much because we are surrounded by restrictive ones. Glad to see it's been overturned. We need to push hard for the repeal of the GCAs and the NFA.

[Duckiller]

As of right now this ruling has very limited area it covers. If confirmed by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals then it would include the entire 5th Circuit. A year ago this month a panel in the 9th Circuit ruled that the way the San Diego Sheriff was interperting Cals. "may issue" law was unconstitutional. State Attorney General is doing everything she can do to delay ruling. To the best of my knowledge Sheriffs in other big city Counties have not changed the way they issue CCWs. An exception is Orange County. When their sheriff heard of the SanDiego case and the ruling she changed her criteria and lots of people get CCWs in Orange County. Los Angeles County now has a Sheriff that grew up in LAPD and doesn't believe in concealed carry unless you are famos. Our beloved Sheriff is a long way from issuing CCW to average citizens. May have to sue to make him comply with SanDiego ruling.

[Plate plinker]

This is definitely great news.

Would you like a little more freedom?
Yes sir!

[wv109323]

Dragon,
The overturned law would allow you go into another state and purchase a handgun and do the paperwork in the state of purchase. It would do away with shipping charges and transfer fees with your in state FFL dealer.

[MtGun44]

Missed NJ when listing the crazy antigun states in the NEast. I will edit that now.
Kansas is also holding hearings on whether they will legalize no-permit concealed
carry. We will still need permits for other states, so I will keep mine, but it is a
good idea and moving closer to the real intent of the 2nd Amendment.

Bill

[Duckiller]

This may be the basis for declaring some California laws unconstitutional. Currently California residents can't buy any gun in another State. See a gun you like in another state? It must be shipped to an FFL in California to be processed through the DOJ and picked up 10 days latter in Calif. One judge has ruled the 10 day wait after someone has already had a background check is unconstitutional. A Colorado dealer asked if I was from Calif., first question on his form. Since I truthfully answered yes he informed me that he couldn't legally sell me a gun and since I had just walked in the front door he wasn't going to risk his FFL illegally selling me a gun. Fortunately he didn't have any gun I wanted so I wasn't too upset. I have never understood what business it was of the State of California if I bought a gun in another state and NEVER brought it into California. I also can't buy a DCM Garand and have it shipped directly to me, it must go through a FFL. After many years of ignoring the 2nd Amendment the SCOTUS and lesser federal courts are taking a hard look at state and federal laws that may be a violation of the Constitution.

[bdicki]

http://www.usacarry.com/concealed_carry_permit_reciprocity_maps.html

[ksfowler166]

Only problem with not issuing a permit and requiring a background check is the Gun Free Zones Act. Which basically creates a 3 block in any direction zone around any school (open to interpreting home schooling as a school).Which if you are caught with a firearm that is not unloaded and in a locked container (CCW licensees exempted) face a five year prison sentence.
http://www.gunowners.org/fs9611.htm

Just one more thing in a long list of laws we need to overturn.

[Duckiller]

I believe the SCOTUS has overruled the school gun free zone. How is a non-resident supposed to know he is within 3 blocks of a school and how does that same non-resident detour around all of the schools in a city to comply with the law. I believe this was the basis of their ruling.

[thxmrgarand]

This is why gun owners need to be politically active. It matters who is elected; for instance US Senators can block Obama appointments to federal courts. Having the senate change hands was a big deal for gun owners, especially given Obama's last 2 years at hand.

Being politically active can take all forms of participation. Letters to newspapers supporting pro-gun candidates at all levels of government still help. In my state elections now have so much money and the media are so small that candidates don't really need the small amounts (hundreds rather than tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and more) of money that most of us would likely donate to one candidate. The media are completely bought (in more ways than one perhaps), and ads are so numerous that no one sees or hears them. Our eyes gloss over and our ears tune them out. But campaign volunteers are very scarce. Going door to door and talking to people is extremely important, and much more important than giving money. Gun owners can and do matter when they volunteer at a campaign for a pro-gun candidate.

I let candidates know at the beginning that I am a single issue voter. My wife and I worked very hard to help a pro-gun Republican beat an incumbent Democrat US Senator last fall. It paid off.

In my view the Republican finally gained traction when he sent a mailer statewide that said the Second Amendment protects the rest of the Bill of Rights; I am sure I wasn't the only volunteer advising him to do that. Still, it was a close race; I've read that $200 per vote state wide was spent! But we didn't see many other people knocking on doors. A union sporadically had people out supporting the incumbent. The incumbent had some paid college students out one day. Planned Parenthood had some paid people out but only on their one issue. That was it. Think of it; all that money being spent for this one race but few people knocking on doors, talking with people and leaving campaign material. And with very few exceptions the response we received was extremely positive and friendly. Please consider working on political campaigns for pro-gun candidates at every political level.

[MtGun44]

Gun free zones were found to be unconstitutional, so the law was overturned.

The next session of Congress passed another law, essentially identical to the first one, and
presumably, equally unconstitutional.

[ksfowler166]

I believe the SCOTUS has overruled the school gun free zone. How is a non-resident supposed to know he is within 3 blocks of a school and how does that same non-resident detour around all of the schools in a city to comply with the law. I believe this was the basis of their ruling.
Would you mind telling me when that was since everything I have read seems to indicate that the 1,000 feet gun free school zone is still federal law, regardless of what it is actually called.
http://cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/bill-introduced-repeal-gun-free-school-zones-act-because-deadly-mass-shootings

I will do you one better from my interpretation of the law it is illegal for me to put a shotgun in the back seat of my car and leave my driveway to go hunting/shooting. Since I live within 3 blocks of a school and the shotgun is not in a lock case or compartment.

Like the saying goes you can't leave your house without committing a crime these days.

[Duckiller]

ksfowler, I do not have a citation. My post was from memory as reported by the news. The 1990 act was probably the one overturned and the 1995 act was the 2nd time around. Your situation and people who live next to schools are probably why it should be permanently overturned. And legislatures who can't see problems with simple laws should be voted out of office. People do weird legal things and good laws allow for these actions.

[scarry scarney]

This may be the basis for declaring some California laws unconstitutional. Currently California residents can't buy any gun in another State. See a gun you like in another state? It must be shipped to an FFL in California to be processed through the DOJ.

This would also do away with California's safe handgun requirement. In California, in order for a person to purchase a pistol (does not include private party transfers done face-to-face), the pistol MUST be on California's approved handgun list. As the "testing" requirement includes micro stamping, none are being added at this time. Additionally, the companies that have handguns on the list, have to pay a fee for them to be "approved and tested." See http://smartgunlaws.org/design-safety-standards-for-handguns-in-california/ for more details about our "safety requirements." Remember, "It's for our on good." (sarcasm)