FPC Challenges Federal Ban on Interstate Gun Sales

gun store counter
A federal ban on interstate handgun sales is being challenged by the Firearms Policy Coalition. (Photo: FPC)

The Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) is taking on the federal ban on interstate handgun sales in their latest lawsuit. The filing is titled Elite Precision Customs v. ATF. Industry notables Tim Herron and Freddie Blish are plaintiffs alongside the FPC and Elite Precision, which is an FFL based out of Mansfield, Texas.

The federal ban makes it illegal for Herron or Blish, both of whom travel quite a bit for work, to purchase a handgun directly from Elite Precision Customs when they’re in Texas. Under current law, a handgun has to be shipped to a FFL in the buyer’s home state where the background check will be completed. If the ban can be successfully challenged, it would make it possible for people to purchase handguns directly from brick-and-mortar FFLs while visiting states in which they don’t reside.

elite precision customs in texas
Elite Precision Customs is a brick-and-mortar FFL located in Mansfield, Texas. (Photo credit: Elite Precision Customs)

The lawsuit was filed January 20, 2025 and states…

Despite mandating a nationally accessible background check (or state-level equivalent) to confirm proposed purchasers are not barred by federal law from possessing a handgun, 18 U.S.C. § 922(t), and despite exempting interstate sales and transfers of shotguns and rifles from the ban, 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(3), otherwise-eligible individuals cannot purchase handguns directly from out-of-state dealers. The only way to purchase a handgun from an out-of-state dealer is to arrange and pay for that dealer to ship the handgun to an in-state dealer, at personal cost and substantial delay, to complete the transfer. This imposes a hardship on Plaintiffs Herron and Blish, who frequently travel and wish to purchase handguns directly from licensed dealers without having to coordinate transferring them to an FFL in their home states. It also imposes a hardship on customers and prospective customers of Elite Precision, who are sometimes individuals who live outside of Texas and who either have to forego purchases or coordinate a purchase through a middleman FFL in their home state.

It’s also important to understand that Texas state law doesn’t prohibit FFLs from selling handguns to non-residents. However, due to the federal-level Nonresident Handgun Purchase Ban, FFLs in the Lone Star State can’t sell handguns to non-residents. This is a federal ban that stands in the way of doing business directly with lawful individuals from other states who are legally able to purchase a firearm.

You can read the filing in its entirety here. The DOJ, now under new management, can theoretically choose not to defend the law. It will be more than interesting to see what the feds do here. Watch this space.

 

 

 

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2 thoughts on “FPC Challenges Federal Ban on Interstate Gun Sales”

  1. The blanket federal ban on in-person handgun purchases out-of-state is unconstitutional and has to go away.

    This affected my family directly: while on a vacation trip to another state we stopped in a local gun store and found a handgun that we really wanted to purchase–and could not because we were not residents of that state.

    On a more practical note, this lawsuit should be a slam dunk for the plaintiffs: the objective of the U.S. Constitution’s Interstate Commerce Clause is to ENSURE that we can purchase items from other states or while in other states without impediments. The current position of the federal government–that the Interstate Commerce Clause empowers them to HALT (under the guise of “regulating”) sales in/from other states is exactly the opposite intent of the Commerce Clause.