The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2–1 against the federal government’s ban on interstate transfers of handguns on Sept. 18, finding the nearly 60-year-old law was unconstitutional.
The ruling reverses provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968 that prohibit handguns from being sold directly from licensed firearms dealers to buyers across state lines.
“The ban sullies the plain text of the Second Amendment and is inconsistent with the nation’s tradition of firearms regulation, dating back to the founding era, under that Amendment,” Circuit Judge Jerry Smith wrote in the ruling.
The court also rejected the lower court’s analysis when dismissing the lawsuit last year, determining that the historical record adequately justified the ban because colonial and state laws regulating the movement of firearms across borders satisfy conditions outlined in the Bruen ruling of 2022. …