Welfare Fraud Conviction Properly Used to Deny Right to Buy Gun

The federal law that prohibits convicted felons from owning a gun didn’t violate the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms when it was applied to a man who pleaded guilty to welfare fraud in Pennsylvania, the Third Circuit said.

Under US Supreme Court precedent, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” is an individual right, Wednesday’s per curiam opinion by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit said. But federal law makes it unlawful for any person “convicted of a crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year” to own a gun.

When ...