USPS CANNOT Ban Guns in Their Parking Lots

[PegLeg45]

Georgia rectified this issue for any public assessable parking lot several years ago with SB308, but there was still the question about Federal property such as US Post Offices.

Court Decision – USPS CANNOT Ban Guns in Their Parking Lots

According to a Denver Post report, a Federal Court has ruled that the United States Post Office violated a man’s rights when they banned firearms in their parking lot.

The judge upheld the ban on firearms within Post Office buildings themselves, but said the same ban cannot apply to a gun a left in a car in the parking lot.


http://gunssavelives.net/blog/breaking-court-decision-usps-cannot-ban-guns-in-their-parking-lots/

Federal judge: Post Office violated man's rights by banning gun from parking lot

A federal judge has ruled that a U.S. Postal Service regulation barring firearms in its parking lots violates the Second Amendment in a case brought by an Avon man and a national gun rights group.

But Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch said the Postal Service has a right to bar Tab Bonidy, who filed the lawsuit, from carrying his gun into the Post Office building itself.

Bonidy brought the suit along with the National Association for Gun Rights in U.S. District Court in Denver. The case was handled by Mountain States Legal Foundation. Bonidy has a concealed carry permit and routinely carries a firearm.

In July 2010, Bonidy's lawyer sent a written inquiry asking if he would be prosecuted under the USPS regulation if he carried his gun into the Post Office or stored it in his vehicle in the public parking lot when picking up his mail, according to Matsch's ruling.

Mary Ann Gibbons, USPS general counsel, responded that "regulations governing conduct on postal property prevent (Bonidy) from carrying firearms, openly or concealed, onto any real property under the charge and control of the Postal Service," Matsch wrote.


Read more:

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_23634504?source=pophome

[Magoo541]

The law in Oregon states that anyone legally possessing a firearm (CCW) with no criminal intent is lawful in a Post Office.  BUT a guy was still successfully prosecuted for doing so.

Laws don't mean a whole lot if the legal system usurps them and those that wrote them (e.g. DOJ-Black Panthers)

I weep for my country.

[santahog]

That's good to know, I guess, since I never bothered asking them if it was or not..

[GASPASSERDELUXE]

The USPS parking is on federal property not state. The Oregon courts don't have any say in the matter.

[Magoo541]

The USPS parking is on federal property not state. The Oregon courts don't have any say in the matter.

Until they do.  ORS Title 18.930 which prohibits (kind of but not really-legalese) possession of a weapon in a Federal Facility. 

[Sponsor]

[TAB]

just a fyi  the usps le branch has the highest conviction rate of any federal lea...  You don't f..k with the post office.

[crusader rabbit]

I wonder if this ruling now also applies to the VA parking lots. 

Some years back, a guy was stopped by the VAPD (yeah, they have their own cops) for some sort of minor infraction. 

The officer involved either asked the driver about firearms, or decided he needed to search the guys car. 

Anyway, the cop found an unloaded and secured pistol in the guy's locked trunk and popped him for a violation. 

As I recall, the guy ended up serving time in lock-up--I do not recall the length of the sentence.

Florida has laws on the books about not having a gun within any hospital where psychiatric treatments are offered.  You wouldn't want any crazies to get a hold of firearms UNLESS they are elected members of government, I guess.

Still, the parking lot law makes it difficult for we vets who need to go in for health reasons.  Where do we leave our weapons? 

The VA has no lock boxes at the entrance to the parking lots.  Our 2-A rights are certainly in effect on the drive down and during the drive home again.  But we are forced to relinquish those rights while on VA grounds.

Doesn't seem right.  Perhaps this decision will set things right.  I guess we'll see next time some vet is popped for a firearm violation for carrying a gun in a locked trunk in his personal vehicle.

I do not hold out much hope for rational thought in this matter.

Crusader Rabbit