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:
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.
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