Another significant victory has emerged in the ongoing effort to roll back unconstitutional restrictions on the right to bear arms in places that millions of law-abiding Americans visit every day in every state in towns across the nation. This time, the challenge centers on one of the most familiar public institutions across the country: local post offices. Last week, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) voluntarily withdrew its appeal of a federal court decision that enjoined enforcement of the federal ban on carrying firearms at U.S. Post Office facilities. This withdrawal is yet another meaningful shift in the Trump administration’s approach to defending the Second Amendment by not defending firearm regulations that lack historical support as required by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.
For decades, federal law and Postal Service regulations have broadly prohibited law-abiding citizens from possessing firearms on postal property. Unlike courthouses or other secure government facilities, neighborhood post offices are buildings that millions of Americans visit daily to conduct routine business as they go about their day. Yet federal regulations treated every post office as a categorical “gun free zone” regardless of whether an individual possessed a state issued concealed carry permit or otherwise posed any type of threat to public safety. Of course, local post offices are not “gun free zones” in any meaningful way, as they do not screen for unauthorized weapons and count on criminals to follow the same “honor system” as law-abiding citizens.
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