Disarming a Man Based on Nonviolent Misdemeanor Was Unconstitutional, the 3rd Circuit Rule

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Back in 1995, Bryan Range pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining $2,458 in food stamps by understating his income. He returned the money, paid a $100 fine and $288 in court costs, and served three years of probation.

Although Range did not realize it, that Pennsylvania misdemeanor conviction also came with a lifelong penalty: Under federal law, he lost the right to own firearms. That disability, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit ruled yesterday in Range v. United States, is inconsistent with the constitutional right to keep and bear arms.

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The 3rd Circuit applied the test that the Supreme Court established last year in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which rejected a state law requiring that residents demonstrate "proper cause" to carry guns in public for self-defense. When a gun control law restricts conduct covered by the "plain text" of the Second Amendment, the Court said, the government has the burden of demonstrating that it is "consistent with this Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation." The 3rd Circuit's 11–4 decision is the first en banc federal appeals court ruling to reject a gun restriction under the Bruen test, which cast doubt on the constitutionality of many firearm regulations.

"We hold that the Government has not shown that the Nation's historical tradition of firearms regulation supports depriving Range of his Second Amendment right to possess a firearm," Judge Thomas M. Hardiman writes in the majority opinion.

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The ruling highlights the injustice of a federal law that makes it a felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison, for broad classes of "prohibited persons" to own guns. In Range's case, the relevant restriction, 18 USC 922(g)(1), prohibits gun possession by anyone convicted of a crime, violent or not, that is punishable by more than a year of incarceration. While that usually means a felony conviction, the disqualification also applies to state offenses classified as misdemeanors if the maximum penalty exceeds two years.

Although Range was not sentenced to jail or prison, his crime was punishable by up to five years in prison, which meant he was no longer allowed to buy or own a firearm. When he tried to buy a deer-hunting rifle in 1998, he failed the background check.

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