Insofar as the U.S. Bill of Rights goes, the Second Amendment seems most likely to start a fight. Sure the First will talk smack and the Seventh thinks the people have its back, but battles over the right to carry a gun seem the fiercest fought. This is certainly the case for an Avon couple who, 7News reports, feel the U.S. Postal Service firearm ban unjustly keeps them from picking up their mail.
Debbie and Tab Bonidy of Avon, Colorado, filed suit on October 4, 2010 after traveling from their rural home to pick up mail in the city. While both are licensed with concealed-carry permits for their handguns, they are prohibited from carrying a firearm (or parking their vehicle with a firearm in it), on Postal Service property.
A federal judge in Denver recently allowed the lawsuit to move forward. The case, brought by the Mountain States Legal Foundation, argues the U.S. Postal Service's banning of firearms on its property violates citizen's rights to "keep and bear arms," reports USA Today
The Postal Service initially sought to dismiss the case, noting the Bonidys could easily leave their guns in their parked car on the street. Postal Service representatives also pointed out the U.S. Supreme Court affirms a right to carry firearms, but that prohibitions on firearms in "sensitive places" are legal, writes the Denver Post.
A Mountain States Legal Foundation press release argues,
The Postal Service’s total ban on firearms possession impairs the right to keep and bear arms as protected by the Second Amendment even when individuals are traveling to, from, or through Postal property because the Postal Service does not allow people to store a firearm safely in their vehicles. Anyone with a hunting rifle or shotgun in his car, or a handgun in his glove compartment for self-defense, violates the Postal Service ban by driving onto Postal Service property. Thus, the ban also denies the right to keep and bear arms everywhere a law-abiding gun owner travels before and after visiting Postal Service property.