By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) – The U.S. government cannot ban people convicted of non-violent crimes from possessing guns, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.
The ruling from the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest defeat for gun control laws in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year expanding gun rights nationwide.
The decision stems from a 2020 lawsuit by a Pennsylvania man, Bryan Range, who was barred under federal law from possessing a gun after pleading guilty to welfare fraud in 1995. He claimed the law violated his right to bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
The Supreme Court last year ruled that, under the Second Amendment, any restrictions on gun possession must be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of gun regulation. A majority of the 3rd Circuit, in siding with Range, found that disarming non-violent felons did not meet that standard.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which enforces federal gun laws, declined to comment. A lawyer for Range did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
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