Fifth Circuit Rejects Handgun Sales Across State Lines

By Patrick Richardson

In what some may see as a blow to Second Amendment advocates, on Monday The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a gun rights group’s attempt to overturn laws prohibiting federally licensed dealers from selling handguns to out-of-state residents.

However, things are perhaps not as bleak as they look.

First, a little background.

The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms challenged federal laws prohibiting the sale of handguns by federally-licensed firearms dealers to out-of-state buyers. The committee filed the suit after two of its members in Washington, D.C., were prohibited from purchasing two handguns in Texas, Texas Lawyer reports.

In 2015, the committee convinced U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of Fort Worth to overturn the federal laws. O’Connor ruled the federal statutes violate the Second Amendment and the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause — a decision the government appealed to the Fifth Circuit.

In this particular case, the 5th Circuit found that various laws enacted by Congress:

… All concede that there is a compelling government interest in preventing circumvention of the handgun laws of various states …

The court rejected O’Connor’s ruling, stating that neither due process nor the …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms