A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down a handgun ban on adults under the age of 21, ruling that the current age-based restriction violated the right to keep and bear arms enshrined in the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment.
The ruling is the latest since the Supreme Court established a new test for assessing modern firearms laws in 2022. The conservative-led Supreme Court determined in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, that current gun restrictions were required to be “consistent with this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that 18- 20-year-olds are among those whose “right to keep and bear arms is protected.”
“The federal government has presented scant evidence that eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds’ firearm rights during the founding-era were restricted in a similar manner to the contemporary federal handgun purchase ban, and its 19th-century evidence ‘cannot provide much insight into the meaning of the Second Amendment when it contradicts earlier evidence,'” the judges wrote in their decision, per CNN.
The ruling is in response to a federal ban on handgun sales to people under 21, which was first adopted by Congress in 1968 as part of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, Reuters reported.
The law was challenged by a group of 18- to 20-year-olds and the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation. The appeals court overturned a lower court judge’s ruling that upheld the federal statutes.
Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News.
Reprinted with Permission from Just The News – By Misty Severi
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
One of my grandsons is in the Coast Guard and 18 yrs of age. He uses guns while on Active Duty. When he comes home on leave, he can’t touch a gun…. until now.
I hope this means the law they passed in Colorado last year will be reversed. Colorado is SO uber liberal thanks to all those that moved in the last 10 years, they are so anti-gun it’s ridiculous.
Carrying concealed should be allowed for anyone who can carry.
This ruling is correct. What worries me most, especially as of late, is voter registrations in the hands of “democrats”, or anyone who would vote for one. Personal immaturity and voter registrations don’t mix, and, have proven to be an even deadlier combination than 16-year-olds and driver’s licenses. If they’re not ready, someone has to say “no”.
Shall NOT Infringe….. Nuf said
Remember the argument for lowering the voting age? Same logic here.
The United States Supreme Court has already ruled on this.
This shows the importance of having a president who appoints judges who SUPPORT the Constitution! Obama’s and Biden’s appointments are ALL activists who HATE America and one SCOTUS cannot even define the word “woman.”
This is a just insight to the 2 amendment since through out our history based just on the draft implement during war. I won’t get into the wacked ideas of the left. Some thinking of the left is so far out in space like California its inconceivable.
Children, those under the age of 20 or 21, are too young to vote or to own firearms. At that age, they should be supervised and educated to be trusted to do either.