A Virginia judge has struck down the federal ban on purchasing handguns for adults between 18 and 20.

 

File photo of a Glock 17. AP.

A Virginia judge has stuck down the federal ban on purchasing firearms for adults between the ages of 18 and 20. AP. The ruling is one of many that happened in the wake of NYSRPA v Bruen, which greatly restricted laws on the ownership of firearms. The judge said that the restriction was not consistent with other rights and said it made no sense to restrict the right to own handguns while 18-20 year olds could join the military, vote or serve on a federal jury. The judge also said the law failed the Bruen test, which requires a historical framework for the restriction of firearms. The law will not change immediately as the case is already being appealed. 

My Comment:

I have said for awhile now that NYSRPA v Bruen was a much more important Supreme Court decision than Dobbs v Jackson, which overturned federal restrictions on abortion. In the Dobbs case the court merely said that there were no federal protections for abortions, meaning states could make whatever laws they wanted, which they indeed have. Bruen was a lot more restrictive and require a historical framework for gun restrictions. 

The vast majority of gun laws fail the Bruen test. And this is just another example. Banning handgun purchases for 18-20 year olds is a modern degeneracy and was not around when the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution. Same as similar restrictions on purchasing rifles. Since the restrictions didn't exist back then they cannot do so now. 

I am expecting that the appeal will fail and the federal law will be overturned. Indeed, it's impossible to interpret Bruen any other way. Even the anti-gun shill they quoted in the Associated Press article didn't try to argue it, they just went off about the potential downsides of the law. Even if you were to grant that appeal to consequences, and I absolutely don't, it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not the case passes the Bruen test. 

Even without the Bruen test I always thought that not allowing 18-20 year olds to purchase handguns was age discrimination. Either someone is an adult at 18 or not. If you can't purchase a handgun then you shouldn't be able to vote, join the military, have sex or do any of the other things you can do as an adult. And if a person is an adult then they can exercise every right adults have. 

I would also say that the anti-gun argument against banning handguns for young adults is the fact that it obviously hasn't worked. They were always able to purchase rifles and shotguns but the vast majority of homicides and shootings committed by that age group is by handguns they got illegally. The vast majority of criminals do not purchase their guns legally, they either steal them, use a straw purchase or get them on the black market. The only people that were banned from these handguns were the people that would follow the law and even then it was perfectly legal to own one at that age if you bought it through a private seller or were gifted one. 

Jeff Dege

More generally I think this is another example of how thoroughly the gun rights community has won in the United States. NYSRPA v Bruen was the death blow but even before then the right to keep and bear arms has been trending in our favor. Everyone's seen the gif above and that's just concealed carry rights. When I was born the right was non existent and now it's essentially universal with many states not requiring permits to carry at all. Sure, some blue states are still pushing through laws that will be overturned but that's about it. 

Gun control is dead as a national issue for at least a generation or two. The only way that things change is if the makeup of the Supreme Court changes and there is no guarantee that happens anytime soon. The only other option for gun controllers is full tyranny and even that would result in a massive amount of blowback...