Thanks to a quirk in federal law, for nearly a century it's been illegal to use the United States Postal Service to ship "pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed on the person," even though long guns can be mailed with no issue.
In January of this year, though, the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel issued a formal opinion stating the ban violates the Second Amendment. According to the OLC:
Although this statute does not prohibit the shipment of concealable firearms by private companies, major express services currently forbid all persons from shipping firearms, except for some federal firearms licensees that have private shipping agreements. Thus, unlicensed private citizens face a complete ban on shipping concealable firearms, even though handguns are among the core “arms” protected by the Second Amendment.
... 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.” Because the application of section 1715 to constitutionally protected firearms violates the Second Amendment, we conclude that the Department of Justice should cease prosecutions under the statute with respect to protected firearms.
On Wednesday, the USPS unveiled a proposed rule that would conform its rules with the OLC's opinion, stating that the agency "defers to OLC’s judgment as to the lawful scope of this criminal statute and worked in consultation with OLC to develop the proposedr evisions to our mailability regulations."
The proposed revisions expand the scope of mailable firearms compared to the existing regulations by allowing lawful handguns to be mailed under the same terms and conditions as lawful rifles and shotguns. These conditions continue to require, among other things, that mailed firearms be unloaded. Additionally, otherwise nonmailable handguns will remain mailable between authorized persons consistent with Section 1715. The regulations also continue to specify that mailers must continue to adhere to nonpostal statutes and regulations that regulate the possession, transport, and transfer of firearms, including the Gun Control Act (18 U.S.C. 922) and its implementing regulations(27 CFR Part 478).
The rule won't take effect immediately. Instead, publication of the proposed rule in the Federal Register will kick off a public comment period lasting 30 days. After that window closes, the USPS will then go through all of the comments, and potentially revise the proposed rule based on the input its received. Only after that has taken place will a final rule be published in the Federal Register, along with an effective date of its implementation.
We can expect virtually all of the major gun control groups to oppose this proposed rule. The most obvious argument is that the rule conflicts with federal law. But as the OLC opinion notes, the executive branch has the authority not to enforce federal law in certain circumstances, including "it is probable that the [Supreme] Court would agree that the statute violates the Constitution."
It's the OLC's opinion that the Supreme Court would, in fact, find this statute at odds with the Constitution, which is really all the justification needed for this rule.
There is an ongoing legal challenge to the ban as well; Shreve v. U.S. Postal Service. The DOJ has declined to defend the statute, but the attorneys general of Delaware, New Jersey, and New York have asked the judge overseeing the case to allow them to intervene and defend the statute. The judge has yet to decide whether to allow that to happen, but that decision could come down at any time.
I'm thrilled to see the USPS announce this proposed rule, but I'd also like to see the courts strike down the prohibition as well. Otherwise, the next Democrat to occupy the White House could rescind the rule and reinstate the ban using the same process the USPS is using to enact the proposed rule. Here's hoping the rule doesn't moot Shreve altogether... and that the judicial branch as well as the executive branch holds that the ban violates our Second Amendment rights.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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