On the 12 million acres of land that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) oversees, possession of a firearm is prohibited unless it is being used for hunting or at a shooting range. But that may be changing.
In 2014, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho ruled in Morris v. USACE that the ban was unconstitutional. At the time, Judge B. Lynn Winmill wrote that it “goes beyond merely burdening Second Amendment rights, but ‘destroys’ those rights for law-abiding citizens carrying operable firearms for the lawful purpose of self-defense.” The case was then appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Two weeks ago, with President Donald Trump now in office, USACE indicated that they were reconsidering their stance, and they filed an emergency motion to put the case into mediation. The Mountain States Legal Foundation, which represents Elizabeth Nesbitt (formerly Morris) in Nesbitt vs. U.S. Army Corps, feels confident. “We are pleased the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will at last comply with the Constitution,” said attorney William Perry Pendley.
