Obama-appointed District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman ruled that illegal immigrants may possess firearms.
“The noncitizen possession statute violates the Second Amendment,” she wrote.
While the federal law prohibiting illegal immigrants from possessing firearms is “facially constitutional,” there is no precedent for the government to deprive a noncitizen not convicted of a crime from exercising the Second Amendment, according to Coleman.
Carbajal-Flores, whom the case concerns, has “never been convicted of a felony, a violent crime, or a crime involving the use of a weapon,” Coleman explained, adding, “The Court finds that Carbajal-Flores’ criminal record, containing no improper use of a weapon, as well as the non-violent circumstances of his arrest do not support a finding that he poses a risk to public safety such that he cannot be trusted to use a weapon responsibly and should be deprived of his Second Amendment right to bear arms in self-defense.”
The decision drew widespread criticism.
National Shooting Sports Foundation lawyer Larry Keane wrote on X, “Supreme Court has said the ‘people’ are members of the political community. Illegal aliens in US are not part of the political community and thus do not have 2A rights.”
Similarly, political commentator Jay Oliver told Newsweek in an email, “Those who are here illegally cannot possess a firearm of any kind that is obtained in illegal fashion. There is a civil duty of gun shop owners, if by that route, to lawfully indemnify those who are trying to obtain weaponry of choice by cutting corners.”
