By Tanya Metaksa
What’s New— State Legislatures: California: for the final week of the session with six bills yet to be passed;; Politics: Remaining Primary Elections Calendar: End of August primary elections with listing of endorsed candidates. More primary elections to be held in September
State Legislatures: Still in session:
States running through to Dec. 31: Michigan, New Jersey, and Ohio. Pennsylvania session runs through Nov. 30.
California: The legislature has been working through many bills including onerous gun bills. As we enter the final legislative week there are still bills waiting to be considered on both the floor of the Senate and the House. In the Senate
- AB1753 – “Clarifies” Gun Violence Restraining Order rules by including ammunition in the same process used to seize firearms. In practice, it further bolsters red flag laws that have already taken away rights from lawful gun owners while avoiding basic due process.
- AB1974 – California is still trying to confiscate firearms they hold for temporary safekeeping. This bill makes it even more difficult to get any back
- AB2047 – Limits the sale of 3D printers unless they include “firearm blueprint detection algorithms.” This broad restriction on legal technology raises serious concerns about free speech, innovation, and the rights of everyday Californians— including countless STEM teachers and tech professionals who depend on these tools. But the legislators don’t care about the Bill of Rights violations when they concern gun owners.
In the Assembly:
- SB948 significantly expands California’s Firearm Safety Certificate requirements by mandating a minimum four-hour class with live-fire and official instruction starting in 2028. Crime involving guns isn’t caused by a lack of rules, but this bill adds more time and expense for law-abiding gun owners while doing nothing to stop criminals.
- SB1220 creates a new misdemeanor crime that bans guns and results in a 10-year firearm ban for anyone convicted of dealing with a gun that has altered identifying marks or a removed serial number. California already classifies this behavior as a misdemeanor; this bill just adds another way to lose your constitutional rights over a growing list of lesser offenses.
- AB1743 after passing the Senate, requires a concurrence vote in the Assembly. This bill seeks to expand the access to firearms’ owners’ information. A concern since personal gun owner information was widely leaked in 2022.
Post Offices are no longer off-limits to gun carrying customers
The Office of Legal Counsel’s Aug. 12, 2026 opinion
The Office of Legal Counsel’s Aug. 12 opinion concludes that 18 U.S.C. § 930(a) does not criminalize an otherwise law-abiding person’s carrying of a constitutionally protected firearm for self-defense into a post office that is generally open to the public. OLC grounds that conclusion principally in § 930(d)(3), which exempts the “lawful carrying” of firearms in a federal facility “incident to hunting or other lawful purposes.”
Holding
OLC reads self-defense as a paradigmatic “lawful purpose.” Accordingly, a person may come within the statutory exception when:
- The person may lawfully possess and carry the firearm under applicable federal and state law.
- The person has a lawful reason to enter the particular post office—for example, it is open to the public.
- The firearm is carried for a lawful purpose, such as self-defense.
The opinion rejects DOJ’s earlier, narrower litigation position that the “other lawful purposes” exception should be limited to purposes related to the facility itself, such as hunting-related activity. OLC says the statute requires a lawful purpose for both entering the facility and carrying the firearm, but does not require those two purposes to be related.
Statutory analysis
Section 930(a), enacted in 1988, generally makes knowing firearm possession in a “Federal facility” a misdemeanor, with enhanced felony consequences if the weapon is used in a crime. A post office falls within the statute’s definition because it is a federal building or leased space in which federal employees regularly work.
But § 930(d)(3) expressly excludes “the lawful carrying of firearms or other dangerous weapons in a Federal facility incident to hunting or other lawful purposes.” OLC gives the exception a broad, ordinary-language reading:
- “Lawful carrying” excludes prohibited persons and those violating valid state carry laws.
- “Other lawful purposes” includes self-defense, which is central to the Second Amendment under District of Columbia v. Heller.
- The inclusion of hunting does not confine the exception to hunting-like or facility-specific activities; hunting and self-defense are commonly paired in federal firearms statutes and constitutional doctrine.
OLC also notes that its conclusion does not cover weapons independently forbidden by law, nor does it give carte blanche to carry at postal facilities that are not generally open to the public, such as facilities on military bases or beyond airport security.
Constitutional rationale
Although OLC says it need not formally decide § 930(a)’s constitutionality, it invokes constitutional avoidance: interpreting the exception broadly avoids serious Second Amendment questions. In OLC’s view, a general ban on carrying ordinary firearms for self-defense in public-facing post offices would presumptively burden conduct protected by the Second Amendment under Bruen and Wolford.
The opinion finds substantial historical difficulty with treating ordinary post offices as “sensitive places” analogous to legislatures, polling places, or courthouses:
- The postal system has existed since the Founding, and mail-related violence was a recognized problem.
- Yet early Congresses responded by punishing mail robbery and attacks on mail carriers, not by barring firearms in post offices.
- Federal restrictions on firearms in federal buildings appeared only in 1964, and post-office-specific regulations appeared in 1972.
- OLC concludes that the apparent absence of a founding-era or nineteenth-century analogue casts serious doubt on a categorical prohibition in public post offices.
Practical significance
The opinion is an authoritative Executive Branch interpretation for DOJ, not a Supreme Court ruling or a direct invalidation of the Postal Service’s existing firearms regulation, 39 C.F.R. § 232.1(l). Its practical position is that § 930(a) should not be used to prosecute a qualified, law-abiding person merely for carrying a constitutionally protected firearm for self-defense into a post office held open to the public. The opinion is expressly limited to that setting and does not resolve the legality of firearm restrictions at other federal facilities.
August 31 Primary Elections Calendar:
Oklahoma primary runoffs and a South Carolina Republican special-primary runoff
OKLAHOMA PRIMARY RUNOFF
GOVERNOR: Both candidates: Republican Mike Massei and Republican Gentner Drummon were given “A” by the NRA Political Victory Fund.
State Senate: District 18: Jack Stewart; District 34: Dana Prieto
State House: District 18: David Smith
SOUTH CAROLINA PRIMARY RUNOFF
Although the NRA-PVF has given both Senator Darline Graham (who was appointed Senator by President Donald J. Trump upon the death of her brother Lindsay Graham) and Ralph Norman who is running against her an A rating, on August 21 President Trump held a rally in South Carolina for Darline Graham.
