NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED FEDERAL LAWYERS
What is gun on federal property charges
|Thanks for visiting Spodek Law Group. We’re a second-generation law firm, managed by Todd Spodek, with over 40 years of combined experience defending clients in federal firearms cases. You may have heard of some of our famous cases – we represented Anna Delvey in the case that became a Netflix series, handled the Ghislaine Maxwell juror misconduct matter, and defended clients in the Alec Baldwin stalking case. If you’re on this page, it’s because you or someone you care about is facing gun charges on federal property – and you need to understand what you’re up against.
Carrying a gun into a federal building might seem like an honest mistake, especially if you have a valid concealed carry permit from your state. You walk into a post office with your legal firearm, you forget it’s in your bag at a VA hospital, you leave it in your car at a federal courthouse parking lot. The problem? None of that matters under federal law. 18 U.S.C. § 930 makes it a crime to possess firearms or dangerous weapons in federal facilities – and your state permit doesn’t create any exception, your intent doesn’t matter, and even keeping it locked in your vehicle on federal property can land you in prison.
Federal prosecutors charge these cases aggressively in 2025. We’ve seen clients arrested for guns in post office parking lots, firearms left in cars outside VA hospitals, and weapons discovered at security checkpoints in federal buildings. The government views these as serious offenses, not technical violations.
What Counts as a Federal Facility
The statute defines “federal facility” broadly – any building or part of a building owned or leased by the federal government where federal employees regularly perform official duties. Post offices. Social Security offices. VA hospitals. Federal office buildings. IRS buildings. Immigration offices. Even the parking lots and grounds surrounding these buildings fall under the prohibition in most cases.
Federal court facilities get treated even more harshly, with steeper penalties. Walk into a federal courthouse with a firearm – even accidentally – and you’re looking at up to two years in prison. The same conduct at other federal facilities carries up to one year, unless prosecutors can prove you intended to use the weapon to commit a crime, which bumps the maximum to five years.
You have a concealed carry permit, you’re legally carrying everywhere else in your state, and you stop by the post office to mail a package. You’ve just committed a federal crime. The state permit gives you zero protection on federal property – federal law controls.
Your State Permit Doesn’t Apply
This is the most common misconception we encounter. Clients come to us saying “I have a valid carry permit” as if that should end the discussion. It doesn’t. Federal facilities operate under federal law, not state law. Your Florida concealed carry permit, your Texas LTC, your Pennsylvania license to carry – none of these authorize you to bring a firearm onto federal property.
The only exceptions are narrow. Federal law enforcement officers performing official duties. Armed Forces members authorized by law. People engaged in lawful hunting on federal lands where permitted. If you’re a regular citizen with a state permit, you’re prohibited from carrying in federal facilities, period.
What about your car? People assume that if the gun stays locked in the vehicle, they’re safe. Wrong in most cases. The prohibition extends to the parking lot and grounds of many federal facilities – VA hospitals are notorious for this, as are federal courthouses. Federal regulations make clear that violators face fines and imprisonment up to five years, and that includes firearms in vehicles.
We’ve represented clients who left guns in their cars at post offices, thinking they were being responsible. They got arrested anyway. Federal property means federal property – the building, the parking lot, the grounds.
The Penalties Are Serious
Simple possession of a firearm in a federal facility – meaning you didn’t intend to use it for any crime, you just had it – carries up to one year in federal prison for most federal buildings, up to two years for federal courthouses. Federal sentencing guidelines typically recommend actual prison time even for first offenders depending on criminal history.
If prosecutors can prove you possessed the firearm with intent to use it in commission of a crime, the maximum jumps to five years. They don’t need to prove you actually committed another crime, just that you intended to. That intent element can come from statements you made, the way the gun was positioned, whether it was loaded.
Fines can reach into the tens of thousands of dollars. You’ll have a federal conviction on your record, which creates problems for employment, housing, future gun ownership. If you’re not a U.S. citizen, a firearms conviction can trigger deportation proceedings.
Federal judges have less discretion than state judges. The sentencing guidelines calculate a recommended range based on your offense level and criminal history, and while judges can depart from that range after Booker, they often don’t without compelling reasons. This isn’t a system where you walk in, explain it was an accident, and get probation. Federal prosecutors want jail time.
What Defenses Actually Work
The “I didn’t know” defense rarely works. Ignorance of the law isn’t a defense – you don’t get acquitted just because you didn’t realize the post office was federal property. The statute requires “knowingly” possessing the firearm, but that means knowingly possessing the gun itself, not knowingly violating the law.
Challenging whether the location actually qualifies as a federal facility sometimes works. Not every building with some federal presence meets the definition – it has to be owned or leased by the federal government, and federal employees must regularly be present performing official duties. If the government can’t prove those elements, the charge fails.
Property boundary disputes sometimes provide a defense. Was the firearm actually “in” the federal facility? If you were on the sidewalk outside, or in a parking area that doesn’t clearly belong to the federal building, you may be able to argue you weren’t on federal property.
Procedural defenses matter. How did law enforcement discover the gun? If they conducted an illegal search without proper justification, the evidence gets suppressed. If they exceeded the scope of a lawful search, the gun gets excluded and the case often collapses.
Plea negotiations can reduce the charge or recommend a lower sentence. If your lawyer can show mitigating factors – clean record, genuine mistake, immediate cooperation – you can sometimes negotiate a plea to a lesser offense or get probation instead of prison.
At Spodek Law Group, we handle federal firearms cases like this because we understand both the law and how federal prosecutors think. We have former federal prosecutors on our team who know exactly how the government builds these cases and where the weaknesses are. We’ve defended clients in firearms cases that other lawyers said were unwinnable. If you’re charged under 18 U.S.C. § 930, don’t wait – federal cases move fast, and decisions you make in the first days after arrest can determine whether you go to prison or walk away. We’re available 24/7, we handle cases nationwide, and we can start working on your defense immediately.