Published September 21, 2026 at 12:09 PM ET · Updated September 21, 2026 at 3:17 PM ET
Fifth Circuit strikes down federal ban on interstate handgun purchases
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The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has struck down the federal ban on interstate handgun purchases. The ruling invalidates the prohibition on buying handguns across state lines.
Patriot Watch first flagged this story 9 d ago, when AmmoLand reported it. So far this remains a single-source report. The most recent report came 9 d ago from AmmoLand.
⚖ The Constitutional Angle
Bruen held that conduct covered by the Second Amendment's text is presumptively protected unless the government justifies it with the historical tradition of firearm regulation. The Fifth Circuit struck the interstate purchase ban because that showing failed. Heller recognized an individual right to possess handguns yet kept longstanding conditions on commercial sale presumptively lawful, the government's best ground.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police 597 U.S. 1 (2022)
Vote: 6-3 · Opinion: Thomas
New York's requirement that applicants demonstrate 'proper cause' — a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community — to obtain an unrestricted public-carry license violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public. The Court held the Second Amendment protects a right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense, and rejected the two-step means-end framework lower courts had applied after Heller.
District of Columbia v. Heller 554 U.S. 570 (2008)
Vote: 5-4 · Opinion: Scalia
The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use it for traditionally lawful purposes such as self-defense within the home. The right is not unlimited: the Court noted that longstanding prohibitions (e.g., possession by felons and the mentally ill, carrying in sensitive places, conditions on commercial sale) remain presumptively lawful. D.C.'s ban on handgun possession in the home and its requirement that lawful firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional violate the Second Amendment.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
