CHESHIRE — David Nastri, a town resident who previously unsuccessfully sued Connecticut officials to carry a gun into state parks, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday seeking to challenge the law that bans carrying a firearm into U.S. post offices for self-defense.
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy are named in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Hartford. Garland’s office declined comment Thursday citing the pending litigation. A representative of the U.S. Postal Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In the complaint, Atkinson contends that all post offices are federal entities that fall under a federal ban on carrying firearms into federal buildings or property. There are exceptions to the ban for law enforcement and other “lawful purposes” including hunting. But, the lawsuit stated, the federal government has “never taken the position that carrying a firearm for the purpose of self-defense is a lawful purpose.”