Fifth Circuit Upholds Law Restricting Out-of-State Handgun Sales

Priscilla Owen.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has rejected a gun rights group’s attempt to overturn laws prohibiting federally licensed dealers from selling handguns to out-of-state residents.

Members of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms challenged federal laws prohibiting the sale of a handgun by a federally licensed firearm dealer to a person who is not a resident of the state of the seller’s state. The committee filed the suit after two of its members in Washington, D.C., were prohibited from purchasing two handguns in Texas.

In 2015, the committee convinced U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of Fort Worth to overturn the federal laws. O’Connor ruled the federal statutes violate the Second Amendment and the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment’s due process clause—a decision the government appealed to the Fifth Circuit.

In its ruling Friday, the Fifth Circuit concluded the federal government had a compelling interest in regulating and preventing out-of-state gun sales. Judge Priscilla Owen wrote it is unrealistic to expect the nation’s 123,000 licensed dealers to know the handgun laws of all 50 states before making out-of-state sales.

“The laws of the various states differ as to who may lawfully possess a firearm. All but one state (Vermont) prohibits possession of a firearm by a felon, but the definitions of ‘felony’ differ. Similarly, restrictions based on mental illness vary. Some states prohibit the purchase of a firearm by drug abusers, and some restrict purchases by those who have abused alcohol,” Owen wrote.

“It is reasonable, however, for the federal government to expect that (licensed dealers) located in a state can master and remain current on the firearm laws of that state,” Owen wrote.
Owen also rejected the lower court’s conclusion that the federal firearms laws violated the plaintiff’s due process rights.

“The cases on which the district court relied in concluding that the federal laws at issue ‘impinge on residency’ involved state laws that granted benefits to state residents,” Owen wrote, reversing the district court’s judgment. “The in-state sales requirement does not favor or disfavor residents of any particular state. Rather, it imposes the same restrictions on sellers and purchasers of firearms in each state and the District of Columbia.”