Man Who Fired At CIA Headquarters Took an Unexpected Argument to a Federal Appeals Court

Security cameras recorded a man firing four rounds from a handgun onto the grounds of CIA headquarters.

At the time, he was already under a felony gun indictment in Oregon.

Now his lawyer is leaning on a Supreme Court ruling about a marijuana user, and the judges had questions.

Robert Scofield Sat On a Bench Outside the Main Gate With a Gun to His Head

It happened on March 19, 2025, along Route 123 outside the agency's main gate in McLean, Virginia.

A CIA police officer answered a call about a man with a gun and found 28-year-old Robert Scofield sitting on a bench, handgun aimed at his head.

Security footage showed Scofield pointing the handgun into the installation and firing, according to court documents.

Fairfax County negotiators talked to him for hours before he surrendered.

The standoff put CIA headquarters on lockdown.

He told the officer he was on probation out of Oregon.

He had a December 2023 controlled substance conviction in Washington state.

Prosecutors have laid out how he got to Virginia.

Oregon indicted Scofield in February 2025 for being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Not long after, prosecutors say, he mailed a gun broken down into parts from Washington state to a D.C. hostel, collected it there and rebuilt it.

He bought ammunition in Maryland.

Then he went to CIA headquarters.

Federal Law Bans Anyone Under Felony Indictment From Moving a Gun

The Oregon indictment is central to the appeal.

Federal law, 18 U.S.C. § 922(n), makes it a crime for anyone under felony indictment to ship, transport or receive a firearm.

The law applies to people who have been charged with a felony but not convicted.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema refused to dismiss the indictment, and Scofield is asking the Fourth Circuit to send the case back to the district court.

On October 28, 2026, a panel of Judges Julius Richardson, Robert King and Henry Floyd heard his appeal in Richmond.

Richardson is a Trump appointee, King was appointed by Bill Clinton and Floyd by Barack Obama.

"My client's indictment is still a non-violent offense. It's just a mere possession offense," Assistant Federal Public Defender Sam Mancina told the judges.

He argued the Oregon statute is broad enough to cover antique guns.

Richardson asked about the shots Scofield is accused of firing.

"Those are the allegations," Mancina answered, adding that the charge itself was felony possession.

Scofield's Defense Cites the Supreme Court's Marijuana Ruling

Scofield's lawyers have repeatedly cited United States v. Hemani, the June 2026 Supreme Court decision siding with a Texas marijuana user charged under the federal ban on drug users owning guns.

In that case, Justice Neil Gorsuch questioned whether marijuana use is as dangerous as the use of other illegal drugs.

Gorsuch also described the ruling as "a narrow one."

The justices left open whether the government can disarm someone shown to be a danger to himself or others.

Richardson pointed to how specific the facts in Hemani were, noting the Court considered that Hemani smoked marijuana a couple of times a week.

That, the judge said, "seems to suggest we have to look at the specific conduct here."

"The specific conduct here is he's in a parking lot and he's firing his gun," Richardson said.

Nobody was hit, the judge noted, but "that doesn't feel like a sort of happy-go-lucky story."

"When we start looking at his particular conduct, I don't know, seems like you got a difficult story," he added.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Reed Sawyers, arguing for the government, also questioned whether Hemani fully addressed the danger question.

How Courts Have Ruled On the Indictment Gun Ban Since Bruen

The Supreme Court recognized an individual right to keep a handgun at home in its 2008 Heller decision.

Its 2022 Bruen decision requires the government to show a gun law fits the nation's historical tradition of firearms regulation.

After Bruen, a federal judge in Texas declared § 922(n) unconstitutional and dismissed an indictment against a man named Jose Gomez Quiroz.

The Fifth Circuit reversed in January 2025, ruling the law "is consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearms regulation."

That court pointed to founding-era practices of holding serious criminal defendants before trial, including bail proceedings in Aaron Burr's treason case.

In 2024, in United States v. Rahimi, the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 that a person found to pose a credible threat to others "may be temporarily disarmed consistent with the Second Amendment."

The Fourth Circuit's full court upheld Maryland's ban on so-called assault weapons in Bianchi v. Brown in 2024, and the Supreme Court declined to review that case in 2025.

If the panel sides with Scofield, his case returns to the district court.

If it rules against him, the indictment stands.

The panel has not yet issued a ruling as of this writing.

Sources:

• Yann Ranaivo, "Fourth Circuit Considers Second Amendment Argument From Man Arrested Near CIA Headquarters," Courthouse News Service, October 28, 2026.
• DC News Now, "Court Documents: Man Charged After Barricade Incident at CIA Headquarters," DC News Now, March 21, 2025.
• AWR Hawkins, "'Security Incident' at CIA Headquarters Has Massive Police Presence, Entrance Closed," Breitbart News, May 22, 2025.
• U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, "United States v. Quiroz," U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, January 13, 2025.
• U.S. Supreme Court, "United States v. Rahimi," U.S. Supreme Court, June 21, 2024.
• U.S. Supreme Court, "United States v. Hemani," U.S. Supreme Court, June 18, 2026.
• U.S. Supreme Court, "Snope v. Brown," U.S. Supreme Court, June 2, 2025.