President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice just handed Second Amendment supporters a big win.
And it looks to rewrite nearly 100 years of precedent.
The DOJ has ruled that a century-old federal ban on sending handguns through the mail is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced.
The DOJ released the 15-page opinion, written by T. Elliot Gaiser, the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel, on Thursday.
The opinion ultimately determined that the 1927 law, which made it illegal to mail concealable firearms (typically handguns such as pistols and revolvers, but also short-barreled shotguns and rifles), was an infringement on Second Amendment rights.
“We conclude that the restriction imposed by section 1715 violates the Second Amendment,” Gaiser wrote. “Section 1715 makes it difficult to travel with arms for lawful purposes, including self-defense, target shooting, and hunting.
“The statute also imposes significant barriers to shipping constitutionally protected firearms as articles of commerce, which interferes with citizens’ incidental rights to acquire and maintain arms.
“Indeed, the statute ultimately aims to suppress traffic in constitutionally protected articles thus rendering the law per se unconstitutional as to those articles, and we are aware of no historical analogues that would satisfy the government’s burden of showing that this unprecedented restriction ‘is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.’”
According to The Hill, current U.S. Postal Service policy says that nonmailable firearms found in the mail “must be immediately reported to the United States Postal Inspection Service.”
Investigations are then handed over to the proper U.S. attorney’s office.
That hurdle appears to be coming to an end soon.
However, despite the pro-Second Amendment tilt to this opinion, it is not all-encompassing.
Of note, ammunition and gunpowder will not be subject to this new freedom.
“We also do not conclude that the Postal Service is required to carry ammunition or gunpowder,” Gaiser’s opinion read.
“Even though ammunition is constitutionally protected… a mailing restriction on all explosives serves legitimate postal needs to prevent injury to postal employees and property,” Gaiser wrote.
The opinion added, “Such facially neutral restrictions do not discriminate against constitutionally protected items.”
Gaiser ended his opinion with this: “Accordingly, the Executive Branch may not, consistent with the Constitution, enforce section 1715 with respect to constitutionally protected firearms, and the Postal Service should modify its regulations to conform with the scope of the Second Amendment as described in this opinion.”
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