Mass shooters, like people in other groups, have patterns. One of the consistent patters is that they tend to specifically target gun-free zones: areas where carrying a gun is illegal. Why? So that that they can have a higher death count. It’s horrible that they do that, but it’s useful for you and I to know so that we can try to avoid being in gun-free zones.
But completely avoiding gun-free zones isn’t always practical. And while the ignorant may think that there is a logic to making schools gun-free zones (which prevents law-abiding people from being there to protect against active shooters), there is one place that was, until recently, a gun-free zone that will just make you scratch your head.
Because you’ll wonder why it was a gun-free zone in the first place. Naveen Athrappully writes,
A federal judge in Florida ruled on Jan. 12 that the U.S. government’s decision to arrest a man for possessing a firearm in a post office violated his Second Amendment right to bear arms.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle for the Middle District of Florida cited the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in the New York State Rifle and Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen case, in which the high court said that the Second Amendment protects a U.S. citizen’s right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense purposes.
That ruling also set up a new test for judging firearms laws, stating that such legal restrictions should be consistent with the country’s historical tradition of firearms regulation.
That’s right, it was illegal to carry a firearm in a post office.
And does it make any sense to anyone with a rational viewpoint on guns and gun ownership why that had been the case?
I won’t pretend that it makes sense to me, but I am glad that Judge Mizelle decided to get rid of that stupid gun-free zone designation for post offices. Americans should be able to carry to defend themselves in every public space.
I believe the ban on firearms at USPS became radically enforced when the first post office shooting occurred in 1991 in Royal Oak MI. There a postal worker became so upset about mistreatment by management he unfortunately decided to solve the problem himself.
Hence the term ‘going postal’ was created.
The knee jerk reaction was off course to illegally violate the rights of millions of law abiding citizens rather than deal with the bureaucratic jerks who were mistreating employees & mismanaging the USPS (something that still is occurring today – check Reddit).
At that time it was pretty much illegal to carry a gun concealed anywhere in MI (the whole state was a gun free zone in those days) so the fact that federal law banned them in Post Offices as well had little meaning and no one paid attention.
Now decades later with ‘shall issue’ and ‘constitutional carry’ almost universal it is time for this onerous and ridiculous restriction to go the way of the Dodo.
In fact this federal law is so bad even a Police Officer, on duty & in uniform, commits a felony by going to the Post Office to mail a letter or get his mail from his P. O. Box!
Now I disagree with the courts making law as much as the current Supreme Court does, but the dysfunction in DC is not going to allow meaningful governance to occur until the ‘woke’ majority is finally replaced.
So I say SCOTUS make it happen!
Just as shall issue carry permits have not caused blood to run in the streets (in fact the exact opposite has resulted) so shall allowing citizens to transact business on federal hallowed ground without violating the Constitution.
Wish the judge would extend this ruling to ALL govt (ie. Public!) property. Maybe except courthouses… But there’s, for example, ZERO excuse to remove 2A on a military base….
BEWARE, this ruling ONLY applies to that one specific individual; it is not yet all emcompassing.
Never lived in that state . Did not press California as my state. Paid but cannot complete the full application.
Is the judge going to allow people to carry guns in the courthouses also because the Post office just like Courthouses are Federal buildings , or is she going to play hypocrite and only allow them is some Federal buildings ( the ones that judges don’t preside in ) , I don’t care what the decision is just as long as the standard is the same , either all or not at all.
Yeah Rich, but all laws for carry are no longer the same, some are privileged while others are not.
Police can carry, yet those who they are suppose to work for and protect our rights and property can not carry. WE thought they worked for us, but like they say ” Times change”. No I don’t trust those who breach there oath of office, like Biden, and his now gun control efforts. However the curse is on them that’s what the Bible says in Isaiah 10:1,2 the ” Woe” there is a warning from God, those who go against his word bring a curse upon themselves.
The first mass shooting in a Post Office was in Edmond, OK The occurred in August 1986. 14 were killed and six injured. This is were the phrase “Going Postal” came from.
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