A federal court on Tuesday ruled that the federal ban on firearm possession, storage, and carry at U.S. Post Offices violates the Second Amendment. 

Chief District Judge Reed O’Connor for the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Texas this week handed down a 17-page ruling in the case of two citizens of the Lone Star state who desire to carry their firearms for self-defense while visiting the post office, but refrain from doing so out of fear of violating federal law.

O’Connor, a 2007 appointment to the federal bench by President George W. Bush, pointed out that the postal service's ban doesn't square with history and tradition.

Citing that the first mail service in America was established in 1639, but the USPS waited until 1972 to specifically prohibit firearms on postal property, O’Connor granted a motion for summary judgment by the plaintiffs "[B]ecause the Government has not shown any relevantly similar historical analogue to support banning firearms in ordinary post-offices or on postal property." 
 

For now, the court order blocking the USPS from enforcing its "no guns" policy covers the two plaintiffs and members of the organizations that were co-plaintiffs in the lawsuit, the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation. It is also limited to stand-alone post offices and doesn't cover USPS property on military bases or inside a larger federal building, such as a U.S. Courthouse, which has its own, separate laws that prevent the carry of firearms.

Nonetheless, the case backers consider it an important victory. 

"This is a huge win for SAF and its members," said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb in an email to Guns.com. "There is no historical analogue to justify a ban on carrying a firearm on postal property, and we are pleased the court rightly saw through this thinly veiled attempt at preventing citizens from fully exercising their constitutional rights."