Gun owners Second Amendment rights are not “completely destroyed” by a ban on loaded firearms and ammunition at recreation areas managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.
At parks and campgrounds at dams and reservoirs throughout the United States, the Corps prohibits loaded guns without permission of a district commander. GeorgiaCarry.org and member David James, who frequently camps at Allatoona Lake in northwest Georgia, challenged that ban after a Corps commander refused to grant permission.
The U.S. District Court in Atlanta last year denied the challengers’ request for a preliminary injunction, saying that the federal government had the right to restrict firearms on its property. The firearm regulation was a “reasonable fit to the Corps’ interests by contributing to visitor safety and protecting infrastructure projects — particularly in light of the Corps’ limited ability to police its own property,” the court ruled in August.
In upholding the ruling, the 11th Circuit noted that GeorgiaCarry made a sweeping argument that the ban was per se unconstitutional because is completely destroyed their rights to keep and bear arms. But the justices noted in their opinion that the Corps’ firearms regulation applies only to a Corps property specifically designated for recreation. “The plaintiffs can freely exercise their right to bear arms for self-defense elsewhere, whether in the home or on the streets, without running afoul of this regulation,” the decision says.
The plaintiffs could camp elsewhere, where their Second Amendment rights wouldn’t be disturbed, the court said.
The ruling sends the case back to federal district court, though, for an analysis that might show if the Corps’ ban is reasonable in light of potential national security concerns about the Allatoona dam itself, as well as consideration of dangers facing Allatoona visitors.
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