Man Can’t Lose Gun Rights Over Fraud Felony, Appeals Court Says

A law barring convicted felons from possessing firearms can’t be constitutionally enforced against a man convicted of welfare fraud three decades ago, a divided federal appeals court said Monday.

Bryan Range is part of “the people” protected by the Second Amendment regardless of his 1995 conviction for making a false statement to obtain food stamps, Judge Thomas M. Hardiman said in the Third Circuit’s majority opinion.

And the government “did not carry its burden of showing that the principles underlying our Nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulation support disarming Range,” Hardiman wrote.

The en banc decision is a ...