Quote of the Day
FINALLY — COURT STRIKES DOWN FEDERAL INTERSTATE HANDGUN PURCHASE BAN. There is finally a national market for handguns. It shouldn’t have taken 18 years after Heller to get here. Let’s review.
I first challenged this dumb law in 2011. My client, a DC resident, couldn’t buy a handgun because the only DC FFL had lost his lease and couldn’t take the transfer from the Virginia store. Fourth Circuit held — NO STANDING, because the Virginia store’s decision to not violate the law was its own voluntary choice, therefore, not traceable to federal enforcement threat. Lane v. Holder. Obviously a crazy opinion, but, you know, guns.
And it created a direct conflict with the 5th Circuit, which had just upheld standing to challenge federal purchase restrictions. Fourth Circuit did not care. So… I brought a lawsuit in Texas. Judge O’Connor beat the government up badly on standing, got them to basically admit it, and struck down the law. Mance v. Holder.
Shortly before the appellate argument, the 5th Circuit advised us to discuss standing at argument. Gov’t gets up and concedes we have standing, no two ways about it. Judge Prado looks bummed out. Puts his head in his hands. Anyway, panel still reverses. Gun dealers may be able to follow out-of-state rifle laws, but not out-of-state handgun laws. Mind you, the purchasers were DC residents who needed permits from the police to acquire the handguns.
We lose the en banc 8-7. Dissents by Elrod, Willett, Ho. And of course cert denied in 2020, because SCOTUS just wasn’t hearing anything about 2A.
Over six years later, finally, some sanity. Watch for SCOTUS to affirm. But this should have happened 15 years ago. So many people had their rights violated for so long.
Alan Gura @alangura
Posted on X September 18, 2026
This is what Gura was responding to:
For those who need a reminder: Alan Gura did the heavy lifting part of the D.C. v. Heller win in 2008 which got the ball rolling on restoring our rights. He was, essentially unknown, and justifiably achieved rock-star status with his win at SCOTUS.
As predicted, structural collapse. Expect the collapse to accelerate through next June when the “assault weapon” bans are ruled unconstitutional by SCOTUS. With that win the political left will essentially give up on meaningful resistance. We will have a lot of cleanup to do, but the lower courts will mostly stop open defiance of SCOTUS.
I will never get tired of winning. Prove me wrong.