Last week the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver ruled against Tab Bonidy in the case Bonidy et al v. U.S. Postal Service et al, 10th US Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 13-1374. Bonidy, joined by the National Association for Gun Rights, sued after learning he would be prosecuted if he carried a firearm into a post office in Avon, CO, or stored it in the post office parking lot while he went inside to pick up his mail. The appeals court ruled in a 2-1 vote that the US Postal Service regulation banning firearms on postal property is constitutional, and reversed a lower court ruling that would have let people keep weapons inside their vehicles in post office parking lots.
Appeals Judge David Ebel said the right to carry firearms does not apply to federal buildings such as post offices, and that while it was a “closer question” he would not second-guess the Postal Service’s extending the ban to its parking lots, because “the security of the postal building itself is integrally related to the security of the parking lot adjacent to it.”
The decision partially reversed a 2013 ruling by US District Judge Richard Matsch in Denver.
We see a right to bear arms in the Constitution, but no authority to ban such or to guarantee security of federal facilities. The feds think the Constitution doesn’t apply on federal property, which belongs to the same people whose rights are secured by the Constitution.
This week the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a full stay of a lower court’s ruling that part of the city’s gun carry law is unconstitutional, pending appeal. The court also ordered an expedited appeal process.
The stay expands on an emergency administrative stay issued by the same court in June. It also puts a hold on US District Court Judge Frederick J. Scullin’s injunction against the enforcement of the law’s “good reason” clause.
Monday’s ruling was handed down by a panel made up of Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, appointed by President George H.W. Bush; David S. Tatel, appointed by President Bill Clinton; and Janice Rogers Brown, appointed by President George W. Bush.
Pro-gunners are saying this week that last week’s SCOTUS debacle on homosexual marriage means that gun rights (licenses) must also be recognized reciprocally nationwide.
Don’t hold your breath. That’s the same argument made (and apparently lost) about the similarity to driver’s licenses. We are unaware of other state licenses that are automatically reciprocal.
Or, just recognize the Constitution (which prohibits infringement such as government licenses or required permission) nationwide. What a novel idea.
