Posted on 09/30/25
| News Source: Washington Times
The U.S. Postal Service policy banning people from bringing firearms into post offices violates the Constitution, a federal judge in Texas ruled Tuesday.
Judge Reed O’Connor, a Trump appointee, said both the Post Office’s own regulation and a federal law barring firearms possession in a “federal facility” cannot survive scrutiny after the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in the Bruen case. That ruling said that for firearms restrictions to stand, they must be consistent with what the founders who crafted the Second Amendment would have envisioned.
Judge O’Connor said post offices existed at the time of the founding. Lawmakers at the time made laws punishing attacks on mail carriers and postal facilities, but did not bar weapons themselves.
It wasn’t until the middle of the 20th century that a ban was enacted.
“Absent a relevantly similar historical analogue, it is hard to envision that the founders would countenance banning firearms in the post office — particularly because they did not do so themselves,” he wrote.
The Justice Department also argued that the government had more leeway to ban guns on properties it owned because it was acting as a landlord.
Judge O’Connor called that a “Hail Mary” attempt that would amount to permission to circumvent the Constitution.
The case was brought by the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Second Amendment Foundation and several individual gun owners.