Gun rights activists have racked up a ton of wins in recent years, and a decision out of Virginia this week adds another big notch to that bow:
A federal judge in Virginia invalidated a set of federal restrictions that prohibit people under the age of 21 years old from purchasing a handgun from federally licensed firearm dealers, finding the rules violate the Second Amendment.
In a 65-page decision issued Wednesday, U.S. Senior District Judge Robert Payne ruled in favor of four men who are over the age of 18 but not yet 21 and want to purchase handguns. One of the men, John "Corey" Fraser, attempted to buy a Glock 19x handgun from a federal firearm licensed dealer in May 2022, but was denied the purchase because of his age.
Judge Payne reached his conclusion after applying the standard set last year by the Supreme Court in its New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen decision.
That ruling held that gun control laws must conform to the nation's history of firearm ownership in order to be constitutionally sound. If authorities craft gun laws that go against what the United States has traditionally considered normal gun ownership, it can't pass the constitutional test.
Payne thus concluded:
Under the analytical framework established in Bruen, the government simply has not met its burden to support the finding that restrictions on the purchasing of firearms by 18-to-20-year-olds is part of our nation's history and tradition. Founding-era militia laws provide circumstantial evidence that 18-to-20-year-olds could purchase, own, and use arms. … There is no direct evidence of age-based firearms restrictions.
Payne also noted that the other protections in the Bill of Rights are not age-limited: The rights found in the First, Fourth, Eight and other amendments "vest before the age of 21," so it makes little sense to restrict the Second Amendment in an arbitrary way.
If 18-to-21-year olds are excluded from the Constitution's full protection, he argued, "it would impose limitations on the Second Amendment that do not exist with other constitutional guarantees."
