On November 21, 2024, federal judge Edmund A. Sargus Jr. ruled that “disarming unlawful immigrants like Mr. Serrano-Restrepo who have not sworn allegiance to the United States comports with the Nation’s history.”
Sargus is a judge in the U.S. District Court Southern District of Ohio, Eastern District.
He issued his decision in response to Carlos Serrano-Restrepo’s attempts to have gun charges dismissed after he was indicted for being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm in the United States.
“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated Serrano-Restrepo and conducted surveillance after he completed a purchase for at least 22 firearms,” ABC 6 noted. In the end, agents seized about 170 firearms from Serrano-Restrepo, as well as “tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition,” among other things.
Through an attorney, Serrano-Restrepo claimed he has a Second Amendment right to own firearms.
Judge Sargus weighed Serrano-Restrepo’s claim in light of Heller (2008), noting, “The Supreme Court has suggested that the term “the people” protected by the Second Amendment “refers to a class of persons who are part of a national community or who have otherwise developed sufficient connection with this country to be considered part of that community.”
He noted that some Circuit Courts are divided on what it means to be included in the “national community” and he turned to American history regarding gun possession to reach his conclusion.
Sargus went through history and pointed to numerous U.S. statutes, noting that they “reveal that there was a ‘well-established’ tradition of prohibiting the possession of firearms by those who did not swear loyalty to their government or political community.”
“…[D]isarming unlawful immigrants like Mr. Serrano-Restrepo who have not sworn allegiance to the United States comports with the Nation’s history and tradition of firearm regulations,” he conluded. “Mr. Serrano-Restrepo’s as-applied challenge lacks merit. The swearing of an oath of allegiance occurs through the naturalization process, not through his asylum application or his years of living in the United States.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
