A Federal Judge in West Virginia has ruled the ban on any firearm without an obliterated serial number is unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin based the ruling of the United States v. Price on the U.S. Supreme Court decision of New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen and struck down The Gun Control Act of 1968 provision that requires serial numbers be assigned to firearms to prevent illegal sales and track firearms involved in criminal activity.
Mr. Randy Price, the defendant in the case was arrested in July of 2019 by the Charleston Police Department when officers “discovered a pistol in Mr. Price’s vehicle with an obliterated serial number.” Price, a convicted felon, was arrested and charged concurring with 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(2), namely possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and the possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number.
Judge Goodwin relied upon the ruling in Bruen that, “Only if a firearm regulation is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition may a court conclude that the individual’s conduct falls outside the Second Amendment’s unqualified command.”
Under that ruling, Judge Goodwin upheld 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(1), which prohibits felons from possessing firearms, but absolutely had to strike down 18 U.S.C. § 922(k).
Very simply Goodwin said the law under 18 U.S.C. § 922(k) “criminalizes the mere possession of a firearm after a serial number is removed, obliterated, or altered in any way, whether or not the firearm is then placed into commerce.” This flies in the face of the clearly written text of the Second Amendment, he argued.
“Having found that Section 922(k) does implicate conduct that is protected by the Second Amendment, the statute is presumptively unconstitutional unless the Government can show that ‘it is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.’ This analysis is constrained by the Supreme Court’s definition of ‘historical tradition’ as the time of the founding and ratification of the Second Amendment in 1791,” Goodwin ruled.
“Any modern regulation that does not comport with the historical understanding of the right is to be deemed unconstitutional, regardless of how desirable or important that regulation may be in our modern society,” the Judge explained.
Naturally, this is so, when the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791 firearm serial numbers were not required and thus were not widely adopted until the passage of The Gun Control Act of 1968 made them mandatory.
In a written statement given to Reuters, Defense lawyer Lex Coleman called the ruling “thoughtful, measured and accurate.”
According to TheBlaze, The U.S. Attorney’s Office for West Virginia said it is “reviewing the ruling and assessing options.”
