The Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen decision was a game-changer for gun rights in this country.
It re-framed the legal debate on gun rights starkly in favor of the rights themselves: Judges under Bruen are now required to consider the "historical tradition of firearm regulation" in the country when ruling on a gun control law.
That ruling led U.S. Senior District Judge Robert Payne in May to strike down a ban on handguns for citizens under 18 years old as unconstitutional:
That was the correct decision. So is this one from Judge Payne yesterday:
The federal law prohibiting handgun sales to adults under 21 years old violates the Second Amendment and should be blocked across the entire country, a federal judge ruled Wednesday. ...
"[T]he Court's ruling does, and must, apply to protect the Second Amendment rights of all citizens between the ages of 18 to 21 who are otherwise eligible to buy a handgun," Judge Payne, a George H.W. Bush appointee, wrote in Fraser v. ATF.
Our man here handing out Second Amendment rights nationwide like:
It makes sense, after all. If a court ruling on a constitutional right applies in one region, it apples in all of them — because the Constitution applies in all of them, too. You can't get away from it.
As Payne notes, residents "between the ages of 18 and 21 in the Eastern District of Virginia suffer an equal burden as people of the same age in the Southern District of New York, the Central District of California, or any other district."
This is the way inalienable rights work!
The judge did issue a stay on his own ruling, however, in anticipation of the (arguably inevitable) appeals from the Department of Justice. So the ruling's correct, but it may just take a little time to get there.
Enjoy those hand cannons, America!
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