The leading gun rights litigation organization in the country has filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, challenging the ban on firearms carry inside Post Office facilities and on postal property.
The eight-page complaint was filed Tuesday morning by the Second Amendment Foundation.
Joining SAF are the Firearms Policy Coalition and two private citizens identified as Gavin Pate and George Mandry, both Texas residents. They are represented by attorneys R. Brent Cooper and S. Hunter Walton at Cooper & Scully, P.C. in Dallas, and David H. Thompson and Peter A. Patterson at Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C.
Named as defendant in the case is Attorney General Merrick Garland, in his official capacity.
In the lawsuit, SAF and its partners note, “The Bruen Court struck down New York’s ‘proper cause’ requirement for issuing a permit to carry a handgun in public. In doing so, it expressly rejected New York’s attempt to justify its restriction as analogous to a historical ‘sensitive place’ regulation…The Court explained that governments may not simply ban guns wherever people may ‘congregate’ or assemble: A rule that ‘expand[ed] the category of ‘sensitive places’ simply to all places of public congregation that are not isolated from law enforcement defines the category of ‘sensitive places’ far too broadly.’
“Put simply,” the text continues, “there is no historical basis for New York to effectively declare the island of Manhattan a ‘sensitive place’ simply because it is crowded and protected generally by the New York City Police Department.
“So if the government seeks to restrict firearms in a particular location as a ‘sensitive place,’” the document adds, “it must prove that its current restriction is sufficiently analogous to a ‘well-established and representative historical analogue.’”
“Under the Bruen ruling of June 2022,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb in a prepared statement, “if the government seeks to restrict firearms in a particular location as a ‘sensitive place,’ it must prove that its current restriction is sufficiently analogous to a well-established and representative historical analogue.”
“Current federal law bars the ‘knowing possession’ of firearms in federal facilities, which includes post offices,” SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut added. “Millions of legally armed private citizens, whose daily routines may include visits to post offices to pick up or drop off mail, are directly impacted by this infringement. There is no well-established, representative historical analogue to justify this regulation, which violates the Second Amendment.”
The lawsuit contends the post office restriction is “unconstitutional under the Second Amendment because they ban the carry of firearms within United States Post Offices and on associated property, such as Post Office parking lots.”
