In November 2022, a federal district court in Texas was asked to
dismiss a federal criminal charge against an individual who had been
arrested for being in possession of a handgun but who had an order of
protection against him. Under federal law, a part of the Gun Control
Act, the pending order of protection caused the man to be classified as a
“prohibited person” relative to firearms ownership or possession. That
status exposed him to federal felony charges.
The individual moved to dismiss the criminal complaint based on the 2022 Supreme Court decision in the
New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen (“Bruen”)
case. The individual argued that federal law which made it a felony
for someone with an order of protection to possess a firearm was not
consistent with the laws in the colonies, then states, in 1791.
Because no such laws existed then, the assertion was made that this
provision of the Gun Control Act was unconstitutional.
The federal court agreed. It concluded that a federal statute, part
of the 1968 Gun Control Act, which makes it a felony for an individual
who has an order of protection issued against them is prohibited from
possessing a firearm, is unconstitutional. See,
U.S. v. Perez-Gallan, Case: 22-CR-00427-DC (W.D. Texas, Nov 11, 2022).
This is a comment on the Court’s opening statement in its opinion:
video
Perez-Gallan is one of several expected state and federal cases that are taking the Supreme Court’s mandate in Bruen
and applying it to challenges of existing statutes and regulations that
have burdened citizens in the free exercise of a right that the 2nd
Amendment declares “shall not be infringed”.
As TFA has argued for
years, many if not most of Tennessee’s current spectrum of gun laws
violate the 2nd Amendment. The Legislature has ignored those facts
and, in contrast, has added new infringements almost year by year with
laws such as Bill Lee’s 2021 permitless carry law (which many
mischaracterize intentionally as “constitutionally carry”). The
Legislature’s failure, particularly under a Republican super majority,
to have taken a “chainsaw” to the infringements in Tennessee over the
last 12 years cannot go unnoticed and uncorrected.
