U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle based her decision on 2022’s Supreme Court Bruen case that greatly restored gun rights. The ruling established the nation’s historical tradition as the basis for the legality of weapons laws.
The Florida case involved a postal worker who was indicted for illegally having a firearm in a federal postal facility.
Mizelle denied the prosecution of Postal Service driver Emmanuel Ayala. She determined that the federal law violated his rights under the Second Amendment to keep and bear arms.
With her basis firmly in the Bruen decision, the judge wrote, “[A] blanket restriction on firearms possession in post offices is incongruent with the American tradition of firearms regulation.”
That tradition is now clearly established that law-abiding Americans have the fundamental right to keep and bear arms outside of the home for self-defense.
Ayala drove a U.S. Postal Service truck in Tampa. He was a lawful concealed carry permit holder and, according to defense attorneys, had a Smith & Wesson 9mm pistol in a fanny pack for protection.
But he was accused by federal prosecutors of fleeing in 2012 when agents attempted to take him into custody. Ayala was subsequently charged under a broad U.S. statute that prohibits firearm possession in federal facilities.
These included post offices.
In her ruling, Mizelle noted that postal facilities have been in operation since the earliest days of the Republic. However, laws prohibiting gun possession in these locations were only created in 1964 for federal buildings and 1972 specifically for post offices.
The judge added that prohibiting citizens from having weapons in government facilities gives authorities the power to practically wipe out gun rights.
At the same time as her ruling in the defendant’s favor for possessing a firearm, Mizelle refused to dismiss a separate indictment against Ayala for forcibly resisting arrest.
