New Gun Rights Win for Young Adults

Revolver and bullets on American flag background.

(5MinNewsBreak.com) – Young adults are seeing their Second Amendment rights restored as an appeals court struck down an unconstitutional federal ban on handgun sales to 18-20-year-olds.

This landmark ruling reaffirms that the Constitution protects the right to bear arms for all adult Americans, dealing a significant blow to gun control advocates who sought to disarm law-abiding citizens.

Specifically, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit delivered a powerful rebuke to gun control activists by ruling that the federal ban on handgun sales to individuals aged 18 to 20 violates the Second Amendment.

Made in Reese v. ATF, this decision overturns a previous 2012 ruling and marks a significant step toward restoring the full constitutional rights of young adults.

The court’s decision was heavily influenced by the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which set a new standard for evaluating gun laws based on historical tradition.

In applying this standard, the Fifth Circuit did not find historical evidence to support age-based restrictions on firearm purchases at the time of the nation’s founding.

U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones wrote for the court to emphasize the constitutional rights of young adults.

“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 court stated.

“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,” it added.

The ruling directly challenges the federal restriction first enacted in 1968 with the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act.

It exposes the flawed logic behind denying full Second Amendment rights to legal adults who can vote, serve in the military, and enter into contracts.

The court rightly recognized that if 18-20-year-olds are considered mature enough for these responsibilities, they should not be arbitrarily banned from exercising their constitutional right to bear arms.

Firearms Policy Coalition president Brandon Combs supported the case along with the Second Amendment Foundation.

He celebrated the ruling as “yet another critical FPC win against an immoral and unconstitutional age-based gun ban.”

This victory sends a clear message that attempts to violate the rights of law-abiding citizens will not go unchallenged.

While the ruling currently applies only to Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, it sets a powerful precedent that could lead to similar decisions in other circuits.

The ruling reaffirms that the right to keep and bear arms is not a privilege granted by the government but a fundamental right of all American citizens.

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