The Fifth Circuit just struck down a federal ban on interstate handgun sales. That law has been enforced since 1968. The majority opinion held “The Ban, true to its name, categorically bars an entire class of otherwise lawful firearms purchases. The Ban is not a mere stipulation upon an otherwise safeguarded right to purchase firearms in the course of ‘keeping’ them.”
Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Interstate Handgun Sales Ban– legalinsurrection.com
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EXCERPT:
The Fifth Circuit just killed a federal ban on direct interstate handgun sales that Washington has enforced since 1968.
The case, Elite Precision Customs v. ATF, came out of Texas. Elite Precision Customs is a licensed firearms dealer there. Two of its would-be customers, Tim Herron and Freddie Blish, live in New Mexico and Arizona, respectively. Blish is a retired Marine who travels the country teaching safe firearms handling. They wanted to buy handguns directly from Elite Precision. Federal law said no.
Smith wrote the majority. Engelhardt joined. Haynes dissented.
“The Ban, true to its name, categorically bars an entire class of otherwise lawful firearms purchases. The Ban is not a mere stipulation upon an otherwise safeguarded right to purchase firearms in the course of ‘keeping’ them.”
Sections 922(a)(3), 922(a)(5), and 922(b)(3) are the provisions at issue. The long-gun exception in § 922(b)(3) permits some direct rifle and shotgun sales to nonresidents. Handguns get no such exception.
A buyer can still get one. It just takes another dealer.
Elite Precision, for example, can send the handgun to a licensed dealer back in Herron’s home state. Herron then gets it from that dealer. Nobody requires the second dealer to participate, though. Herron told the court he normally pays another $30 to $40 when one does. There is a delay too.
“Even to the extent that the Ban can be circumvented by the licensee-to-licensee transfer workaround … the Ban invariably calls for the payment of a fee over and above the cost of a handgun. We must pause before endorsing a cost attached to the exercise of a fundamental constitutional right.”
