BREAKING: Another Federal Circuit Court Unravels Second Amendment Gun Rights | Firearms Policy Coalition

(Denver, Colorado) – In yet another decision that thumbs its nose at the Supreme Court’s landmark D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago rulings, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals held today that the Second Amendment does not protect gun rights outside of one’s home. The case, Bonidy v. United States Postal Service, challenged 39 C.F.R. § 232.1(l), which prohibits the storage and carriage of firearms on USPS property. The district court decision found that the law was unconstitutional as applied to its prohibition on guns in parking lots, but not the ban on carry inside government buildings.

Circuit Judge David M. Ebel–another Ronald Reagan appointee to decide against gun rights–was joined by Circuit Judge Gregory A. Phillips (appointed by Barack Obama) in the decision:

We….conclude that the regulation is constitutional as to all USPS property at issue in this case, including the Avon Post Office parking lot, because the Second Amendment right to bear arms has not been extended to “government buildings.” Government buildings, in this context, includes the government owned parking lot connected to the U.S. Post Office. Alternatively, even if we were to conclude that the parking lot did not qualify as a “government building,” we would uphold this regulation as constitutional as applied to the parking lot under independent intermediate scrutiny.

Ignoring McDonald‘s command that the Second Amendment does not protect “second-class” rights, the Tenth Circuit held that “[t]he risk inherent in firearms and other weapons distinguishes the Second Amendment right from other fundamental rights that have been held to be evaluated under a strict scrutiny test, such as the right to marry and the right to be free from viewpoint discrimination, which can be exercised without creating a direct risk to others.”

Source: BREAKING: Another Federal Circuit Court Unravels Second Amendment Gun Rights | Firearms Policy Coalition