U.S. judge upholds gun ban for some on probation

A federal judge rejected a challenge to the government’s ability to disarm defendants as part of their criminal sentences, one of the first decisions to uphold the constitutionality of a gun ban for people on probation for misdemeanors since a watershed Supreme Court decision last year set a new test to evaluate such limits.

Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington issued the ruling temporarily barring gun possession by Daniel Shaw, a Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack defendant who pleaded guilty last November to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing.

“[W]hile Shaw’s role in the mob was minor, the fact of his participation in an insurrection whose aim was to impair the peaceful transfer of power suggests that a firearms restriction during his probationary period is appropriate,” Boasberg wrote on Thursday. “The nature of that event puts Shaw’s offense very far from the types of negligent infractions that some circuits have held do not warrant a firearms restriction.”

Courts have struggled to determine when and how the government may restrict the possession of firearms since the Supreme Court radically redrew the legal landscape in last June’s decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, Boasberg noted. At least 58 courts have rejected challenges to legal prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons, but his opinion is the first to address firearms restrictions as a misdemeanor probation condition in the District and apparently one of the first nationwide.

Federal defenders representing Shaw, 56, of Santa Rosa, Calif., challenged the gun ban condition in Shaw’s sentence to two years’ probation, including 10 days of incarceration, imposed March 17. Shaw entered the Capitol despite witnessing police deploying stun grenades and tear gas to keep rioters out.