[Badger52]

Anything but SCOTUS never seems to be the final word (and maybe not then) but this is good to read about.

In a huge victory for supporters of gun rights, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas Fort Worth Division issued a ruling Wednesday declaring the federal ban on interstate transfer of handguns unconstitutional. The 28-page opinion in the case of Frederic Russell Mance, Jr. against Attorney General Eric Holder, Jr. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosive Director B. Todd Jones was signed by United States District Judge Reed O’Connor.

Joined in the lawsuit by the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the judgment noted the Brady instant background check system was not available when the prohibition on interstate transfers was enacted. Because that capability now exists, Judge O’Connor noted, the government’s “argument fails to take into account the current version of the 1968 Gun Control Act, nor does it address how simply crossing state lines under the modern regime can circumvent state law.”

“Based on the foregoing, the Court concludes that Defendants have not shown that the federal interstate handgun transfer ban is narrowly tailored to be the least restrictive means of achieving the Government’s goals under current law,” O’Connor explained. “The federal interstate handgun transfer ban is therefore unconstitutional on its face.”

“Accordingly, the Court DECLARES that 18 U.S.C. § 922(a)(3), 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(3), and27 C.F.R. § 478.99(a) are UNCONSTITUTIONAL, and Defendants are ENJOINED from enforcing these provisions,” the opinion concluded. Noting that the government’s arguments failed even under intermediate scrutiny, any challenge to the ruling appears extremely problematic for Holder and Jones.

“It is bizarre and irrational to destroy the national market for an item that Americans have a fundamental right to purchase,” attorney Alan Gura observed in a triumphant CCRKBA media advisory. “Americans would never tolerate a ban on the interstate sale of books or contraceptives. And Americans are free to buy rifles and shotguns outside their state of residence, so long as the dealers respect the laws of the buyer’s home state. We’re gratified that the Court agreed that handguns should be treated no differently.”