Judge Dennis Jacobs
Decastro was never a licensed importer, manufacturer, dealer or collector of firearms. He moved to New York from Florida in 2002, and lived in New York through February 2006. In April 2005 he bought a pistol in Florida. He transported the pistol to New York, where it was kept in his family’s dry-cleaning business for protection. The business was sold in May 2005. Before moving back to Florida, Decastro gave the pistol to a Bronx resident. The gun was reported to police in July 2006. District court convicted Decastro of transporting into his state of residence a firearm acquired in another state in violation of 19 USC §922(a)(3). Discussing District of Columbia v. Heller, the Second Circuit affirmed conviction of two years of probation, rejecting Decastro’s assertion that §922(a)(3) was unconstitutional as an impermissible burden on his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. The subject law does not prevent one from buying a firearm in his home state. Because §922(a)(3) does not substantially burden the fundamental right to obtain a firearm for self-defense, and attempts only to assist states in enforcing their own gun laws, it does not infringe the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and is “plainly legitimate.”
