Failure to Pay Child Support Doesn’t Justify Lifetime Firearm Ban, Appeals Court Says

Fifth Circuit Judges applied the Supreme Court’s ‘history and tradition’ test to strike down a federal gun conviction.

A customer shops for a pistol in Tinley Park, Ill., on Dec. 17, 2012. Scott Olson/Getty Images

A federal appeals court has overturned the gun conviction of a Mississippi man who failed to pay child support, ruling that such an offense does not justify permanently stripping him of his Second Amendment rights.

In a 2–1 decision issued Dec. 17, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals found that once the man became current on his child support obligations, there was no basis for continuing to bar him from possessing firearms.