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Federal appeals court panel: Ban on handgun sales to adults under 21 is unconstitutional
A federal law that bans the sale of handguns to adults under age 21 is unconstitutional, according to a Jan. 30 ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
The New Orleans-based court panel's unanimous ruling in the case, known as Reese v. ATF, reversed the December 2022 decision of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, noting this is the second case in the court challenging the federal law's constitutionality.
Similar ruling in Virginia: Federal judge says barring adults age 18-20 from buying handguns unconstitutional
The panel's opinion noted a pivotal U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The high court in June 2022 ruled in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen recognized law-abiding citizens' right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense.
The Fifth Circuit panel's opinion was written by Circuit Judge Edith Jones, with Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod and Circuit Judge Rhesa Barksdale.
“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, and its 19th century evidence ‘cannot provide much insight into the meaning of the Second Amendment when it contradicts earlier evidence.’”
The opinion further adds:
"Of course, the words 'purchase,' 'sale,' or similar terms describing a transaction do not appear in the Second Amendment. But the right to 'keep and bear arms' surely implies the right to purchase them. …
"In sum, 18 U.S.C. §§ 992(b)(1), (c)(1) and their attendant regulations are unconstitutional in light of our Nation’s historic tradition of firearm regulation.
"We REVERSE the district court’s judgment and REMAND for further proceedings consistent with this opinion."
The Fifth Circuit remanded the case back to the district court for a final ruling.
Reese v. ATF background
The Second Amendment Foundation teamed up with Louisiana Shooting Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, and two private citizens, Emily Naquin and Caleb Reese, as appellants.
Naquin and Reese had filed suit against the ATF, its director, and then-Attorney General Merrick Garland in 2020, challenging the constitutionality of federal laws prohibiting federal firearms licensees (FFLs) from selling or delivering handguns to adults under age 21. The appellants contended that the laws fringed on their right to keep and bear arms, thus denying them equal protection under the Due Process clause of the Fifth Amendment.
Joe D. "Buck" Ruth, a longtime small-game hunter and gun owner who spent nearly three decades in the news industry, is the website and social-media manager for Buckeye Firearms Association.
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