NRA-ILA July 27, 2018
Last week in Mance v. Sessions, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied, by one vote, a request for a rehearing of the case by the full panel of the court, and confirmed the reversal of a lower court decision that had ruled the interstate handgun sale ban to be unconstitutional.
The individual plaintiffs, Frederic Russell Mance, Jr. and Tracey and Andrew Hanson, were the parties to proposed handgun purchases. The Hansons, residents of the District of Columbia, each sought to purchase a handgun from Mance, an FFL doing business in Arlington, Texas. Texas law did not forbid the sale of handguns to persons residing outside of Texas, and the District of Columbia did not prohibit the importation of firearms.
Despite the Hansons being fully qualified under federal, D.C., and Texas laws to purchase and possess handguns, they decided not to proceed with the sale because they could not immediately take possession of the guns. A federal law makes it a crime for an FFL to sell or deliver a handgun (but not shotgun or rifle) to any non-FFL resident in a state other than the state in which the dealer’s place of business is located. Another federal law prohibits individuals from transporting into or receiving in their state of residence any firearm acquired outside of that state, although it excludes long guns purchased out-of-state in compliance with state and federal laws. Unlike long guns, handguns purchased out-of-state must be shipped to, and transferred through, an FFL operating in the state where the purchaser resides. The rationale is to prevent consumers from circumventing any handgun laws imposed by their home states by going across state lines.
The plaintiffs in Mance alleged this interstate handgun sale and delivery ban was obsolete and unconstitutional. Since the time the ban was imposed, the Supreme Court had recognized a fundamental individual right to keep and bear handguns. The sale, delivery, and receipt of rifles and shotguns outside a consumer’s state of residence weren’t similarly prohibited, and not all states restrict interstate handgun sales. “Responsible, law-abiding Americans do not become less so merely by shopping across state lines.†The result of this prohibition of a “national handgun market†and direct sales was to unnecessarily burden access to the “quintessential self defense weapon,†raise consumers’ costs, in both time and money, and drive down competition, as amply demonstrated by the facts of the case.
The District of Columbia has only one FFL. He maintains no inventory himself, handguns or otherwise, but charges $125 for every transfer of a handgun received from other dealers. In addition to this transfer fee, purchasers must pay the costs of shipping the gun from one FFL to another. Such fees and costs are not unique to the District – FFLs that provide interstate transfer services typically charge a fee, as do entities who provide shipping and delivery services.
More:
https://www.nraila.org/articles/20180727/appeals-court-tees-up-interstate-handgun-sale-ban-for-possible-supreme-court-review
