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Fifth Circuit: 2nd Amendment protects the right of 18- to 20-year-olds to buy handguns

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Guided by the 2022 Bruen decision, the appellate court based its decision on the fact that the nation’s firearm tradition required 18- to 20-year-olds to have their own gun so they could fight for their country and serve in law enforcement.


The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has ruled that a 1968 law banning 18- to 20-year-olds from buying handguns from a licensed seller violates the Second Amendment as well as their due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.

A panel of judges ruled Thursday that a federal district court in Louisiana erred in 2022 when it upheld the ban that had first been codified under a provision of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act.

Interestingly, the Fifth Circuit had declared that the decades-old law was constitutional in 2012, but that was before the Supreme Court handed down its landmark 2022 decision in New York Pistol and Rifle Assn. v. Bruen, which said that a law must be “consistent” with the “Nation’s historical tradition” of firearm laws.

The Bruen decision mandates that courts look at what the regulatory environment surrounding gun laws was like leading up to and at the time of the adoption of the Second Amendment.

In light of that ruling, the Fifth Circuit now says that the law violated the Constitution.

The case was brought against the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), arguing that 18- to 20-year-olds are included in “the people” named in the Second Amendment’s text.

U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones, who wrote the opinion for the court, agreed, stating,

“Ultimately, the text of the Second Amendment includes eighteen-to-twenty-year-old individuals among ‘the people’ 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.”

The Fifth Circuit ruled that not only were 18- to 20-year-olds allowed to serve in militias at the time of the Second Amendment, they were required to serve — in addition to being required to supply their own firearm and ammunition. They were also expected to serve as part of a posse, which acted as law enforcement before police forces were developed.

Jones further explained,

“[C]ontrary to the government’s recitation of concerns expressed in the colonial and founding eras about the ‘irresponsibility’ of those under twenty-one, these young individuals were expected to keep the peace rather than disturb it.

In addition to serving in the militia, eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds could be obliged to join the posse comitatus, for which the minimum age was often fifteen or sixteen, and bring ‘such arms or weapons as they have or can provide’…In early colonial America, the posse was ‘transformed . . . from an instrument of royal prerogative to an institution of local self-governance’ that ‘all but precipitated the American Revolution.’ Citizens could be called to ‘execute arrests, level public nuisances, and keep the peace;’ they faced fines or imprisonment if they refused. Instead of refusing to arm young Americans for fear of their irresponsibility, founding-era regulations required them to be armed to secure public safety.”

The Second Amendment Foundation, one of the plaintiffs in the case, praised the ruling saying,

“We’re delighted the Fifth Circuit took this action. We have always maintained that young adults, who can vote, join the military, get married, enter into contracts and even run for office can also enjoy the full rights of citizenship which includes rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. If we can trust young adults to defend our country, we can certainly trust them to own any and all legal firearms.”

This is a very big win, but the debate over age limits on gun ownership goes on.

Judges in various states have already declared the law banning 18- to 20-year-olds unconstitutional, but it continues to be challenged. The Fourth Circuit, which is far more left-leaning, heard oral arguments in a similar case as the Fifth Circuit last week, and Minnesota has petitioned the Supreme Court to review a decision by the Eighth Circuit blocking a similar state mandate.

With this in mind, the Supreme Court will probably take up and provide clarity on this question at some point: Are 18- to 20-year-olds covered by the Second Amendment or not?

While proponents of such restrictions argue that members of this group are more likely to commit violence with guns, or to commit suicide, they should then also advocate for changing the age of those required to sign up for the military draft to 21. The 26th Amendment gave adults under 21 the right to vote because everyone understood the injustice — and the absurdity — of sending young people off to war when they didn’t have the right to vote for or against the politicians who would decide whether they were sent to war.

If young men and women are old enough to go to war and vote, they should be old enough to own a gun.

It is true that at times in history those under 21 have been seen as less than full adults. That isn’t entirely without merit. It is believed that a person’s brain doesn’t fully develop until age 25; until that point, young people are certainly likely to be more impulsive and to make questionable decisions.

And so again, if this country wants to rethink how we view adulthood and when a person should be sent to war or allowed to vote, then that is a reasonable idea to discuss — though it would ultimately require a constitutional amendment.

But for right now, Americans consider 18 to be the age of adulthood, and we consider an 18-year-old to be ready to fight for and die for his or her country (or even another country).

Historically, 18-year-old Americans were required to have a firearm and serve in militias and as law enforcement officers. They were not viewed as second-class citizens, expected to bear the gravest responsibilities but only afforded some rights. No, they were viewed as adults and citizens, with all the inherent rights and responsibilities that those classifications carried in American society.

Therefore, it is hard to argue that the Second Amendment was never intended to apply to those who were 18 to 20 years old, and clearly American courts agree.

Thanks to the Bruen decision, the Second Amendment is once again protecting the right of not just some but all law-abiding citizens who want to purchase and carry firearms.



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