Via Don Cheney, APWU PSAL 298, Retired President:
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Florida on Friday ruled that a U.S. law that bars people from possessing firearms in post offices is unconstitutional, citing a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling from 2022 that expanded gun rights.
Emmanuel Ayala, a U.S. Postal Service truck driver in Tampa, had a concealed weapons permit and kept a Smith & Wesson 9mm handgun in a fanny pack for self-defense, his lawyers said.
Emmanuel Ayala was indicted after prosecutors said he brought the gun onto Postal Service property in 2012 and fled federal agents who tried to detain him. He was charged under a statute that broadly prohibits possessing a firearm in a federal facility, including a post office.
The judge cited the fact that there was no ban on guns in post offices before 1972. That is true. In the 1960s, in my post office in Corvallis, Oregon, the postmaster kept a revolver in the registry cage and stamp vault in case of a robbery. Banks, jewelers, numismatists, and other businesses used to use Registered Mail a lot to send cash and valuables.
Emmanuel Ayala was represented by an Assistant Federal Public Defender. Attached is the indictment and judge’s decision. The U.S. Postal Service is very likely to appeal.