FPC brief: Congress may lack power over local gun possession

Firearms Policy Coalition has filed a brief in the Fifth Circuit arguing that Congress may never have had the power to make simple, local gun possession by a felon a federal crime. The challenge skips the usual Second Amendment fight and goes straight at the limits of federal power.

The short version

In a video from Jared Yanis, he walks through FPC's amicus brief in United States v. Curtis Squire. According to the brief, New Orleans police found a handgun in Squire's home in February 2024. The government does not claim he bought, sold or carried it across state lines. Its only federal hook is that the gun crossed into Louisiana at some unknown point before he had it. FPC argues that is not enough under the Commerce Clause to support a conviction under 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(1).

FPC relies on United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison, in which the Supreme Court refused to let Congress turn purely local, non-economic conduct into federal crimes. It argues that Scarborough v. United States, the 1977 case prosecutors lean on, was a ruling about the statute, not a constitutional green light.

Key points

• The ask: FPC wants the Fifth Circuit to reverse Squire's 922(g)(1) conviction.
• The hook challenged: Federal jurisdiction rests only on the gun having once crossed a state line, not on anything Squire did.
• Almost every gun: The brief cites testimony that about 95 percent of U.S. firearms have crossed a state line at some point.
• States already act: Louisiana bars possession by people convicted of a crime of violence within the previous 10 years, its own judgment about who should be prohibited and for how long.
• Venue: Yanis notes the Fifth Circuit's strong Second Amendment record makes it a promising court for the argument.

Bottom line

This is a structural challenge, not a gun-rights one, and a win could limit how far Congress stretches the Commerce Clause well beyond gun law. Anyone following federal firearms prosecutions should watch how the Fifth Circuit rules.

Source: Jared Yanis