Do Home Owners Associations Allow AR-15 Owning Residents?

"My wife’s gun-loving brother is eyeing a unit in our co-op building...he should look elsewhere, right?"

My wife's gun-loving, AR-15-owning brother is eyeing a unit in our co-op building. As much as I would love to live closer to this lovely man, surely HOA rules wouldn't allow him to bring his arsenal, right? So he should look elsewhere, right? —Condo Carl

Oh, God; she's right behind you, isn't she? Blink twice for yes.

There's a reason you rarely hear the phrase, "the freedom-loving people of the homeowners association." When it comes to the arbitrary and capricious curtailing of individual liberty, Stalin has nothing on the typical HOA.

So let's just assume your "Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions" (CC&Rs) do contain a "no guns" proviso, right between "no grinning after 10" and "no jodhpurs." You still have to worry that your brother-in-law—let's call him Larry—will invoke the Second Amendment and refuse to comply.

It could work, right? Under the current U.S. Supreme Court, it's easy to imagine that an HOA rule banning legally purchased weapons would quickly be invalidated as unconstitutional.

However, what people tend to forget about the Bill of Rights is that it's a list of freedoms that government can't take away from you, not a list of freedoms that nobody can take away—especially if you've signed a contract willingly agreeing to give up some of those freedoms.

So, it's not whether Larry has a right to bear arms in general, it's whether the HOA contract—in which he agrees not to bring guns into the building—is enforceable.

It probably is. The right of citizens to enter into legally binding contracts, no matter how stupid, is one of the most sacred principles of American jurisprudence—if covenant members mutually agree to give up firearms, that should be their business.

Then again, there are some rights you can't sign away—I can't legally authorize you to kill me, for example. Such rights are "inalienable rights"—perhaps you've heard of them. Could this be one?

Personally, I'd be surprised if a court rewrote "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" to add "plus a sick-ass M16 with a 200-round mag" to the list of such rights. But maybe not that surprised.

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.