The federal government is backing down from its fight to defend the ban on carrying firearms at ordinary post offices.
The Department of Justice has moved to voluntarily dismiss its appeal in the case challenging the decades-old federal restriction on carrying firearms inside post offices and on surrounding postal property. If granted by the Fifth Circuit, the district court’s permanent injunction will remain in place.
That is a major win.
But the post office carry ban is not fully dead for every gun owner in America.
The Ban Is Crumbling
Texas Gun Rights previously warned that the post office gun ban had taken a major hit — but Texans still were not fully free.
That remains true.
According to Firearms Policy Coalition, the lower court victory protects present and future members of FPC and the Second Amendment Foundation. But constitutional rights should not depend on whether a gun owner joined the right organization at the right time.
The Second Amendment does not stop at the post office door.
Law-abiding gun owners should not be forced to disarm just to pick up mail, drop off a package, or step onto ordinary postal property.
DOJ’s New Direction
DOJ’s decision is also hard to ignore given the growing pro-Second Amendment presence inside the department.
Earlier this year, longtime Texas Gun Rights and Texas Gun Rights Foundation Chairman Barry Arrington stepped down after accepting a position with the DOJ Civil Rights Division’s Second Amendment Section.
Public filings do not say who inside DOJ drove this decision.
But with Arrington now helping lead the Second Amendment Section, this move appears to be part of a much-needed shift away from defending every unconstitutional gun-control scheme left behind by the federal bureaucracy.
Gun-Free Zones Are Under Fire
For decades, federal bureaucrats treated post offices like Second Amendment dead zones.
That argument was always absurd.
Post offices are not prisons. They are not courthouses. They are not secure federal facilities with armed checkpoints.
They are ordinary public buildings used by ordinary Americans every day.
And the right to self-defense does not disappear because the government owns the counter.
Finish the Job
Texas Gun Rights Foundation was prepared to make sure Texas gun owners were heard if DOJ pushed this fight through the Fifth Circuit.
Now DOJ appears to be backing down before that battle even begins.
That is good news.
But the post office carry ban should not merely be weakened, narrowed, or limited to members of certain organizations.
It should be wiped off the books completely.
No gun owner should have to choose between exercising the Second Amendment and using the mail.
Chip in today to help Texas Gun Rights keep fighting to destroy gun-free zones and defend your Second Amendment rights without compromise.
