Fifth Circuit interstate handgun sales ruling: what's next

As of 8:39 a.m. ET, Wednesday, Nov. 4, 2026

A federal appeals court ruling that struck down the decades-old ban on buying handguns directly from sellers in other states is set to take effect as soon as Monday, Nov. 9, the date the court's docket lists for issuing its mandate.

In Elite Precision Customs v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled 2-1 on Sept. 18 that three provisions of federal law that together bar direct interstate handgun sales violate the Second Amendment. Judge Jerry E. Smith wrote the opinion, and Judge Catharina Haynes dissented.

What the law does now

The provisions, part of the Gun Control Act of 1968, bar unlicensed people from bringing into their home state a firearm bought elsewhere, bar private sellers from selling a gun to a resident of another state, and bar licensed dealers from selling a handgun to someone who lives out of state. Licensed dealers may sell rifles and shotguns to out-of-state buyers in person if the sale is legal in both states.

A buyer can still get a handgun from an out-of-state dealer by having it shipped to a licensed dealer in the buyer's home state, who completes the transfer. The court noted that dealers are not required to take part, often charge a fee and that the process causes delays. One plaintiff, a New Mexico resident, said dealers typically charge him $30 to $40.

Who sued and what the court said

The plaintiffs are Elite Precision Customs, a licensed firearms manufacturer and dealer in Texas; Tim Herron of New Mexico and Freddie Blish of Arizona, who said they would buy handguns directly from the company; and the Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun-rights group. A federal district judge in the Northern District of Texas had dismissed the case, ruling for the government.

Applying the Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen test, the panel held that the right to keep arms includes the right to buy them, so the ban is presumed unconstitutional. It said the workaround through a home-state dealer does not change that, because the ban still outlaws an entire category of purchases.

The government, in the panel's description, argued that Congress passed the 1968 law to protect public safety and to stop people deemed dangerous from evading their own state's gun laws by buying out of state. It cited 18 colonial and early American laws as historical support, including Connecticut laws from the 1640s and 1650s that barred gun sales to people outside the colony.

The panel rejected those analogues, saying they dealt with wartime defense, trade with foreign powers and Indian tribes, or product quality, not peacetime sales between states. "The Ban sullies the plain text of the Second Amendment," Smith wrote. In her dissent, Haynes said she agreed with the district court that the provisions are constitutional.

The panel openly disagreed with the Second Circuit, which upheld one of the same provisions in 2025 in United States v. Vereen. A split between federal appeals courts is one of the main reasons the Supreme Court agrees to hear a case.

When it could take effect

An appeals court decision takes effect when the court issues its mandate. The Fifth Circuit's docket entry for the opinion lists the mandate date as Nov. 9.

When the United States is a party, it generally has 45 days to ask the panel or the full Fifth Circuit to rehear the case, a deadline the Duke Center for Firearms Law put at Nov. 2. A rehearing request would normally delay the mandate. GROKsiNEWS.com did not find a public record or statement showing whether the Justice Department sought rehearing, and the department has not said publicly whether it will ask the Supreme Court to review the case. The Duke center wrote that, given the administration's positions in other Second Amendment cases, the government may not seek further review.

It is also unsettled how far the ruling reaches once it takes effect, such as whether it covers only the plaintiffs and the coalition's members. Until the mandate issues, federal law still bars licensed dealers from selling handguns directly to out-of-state residents.