There’s a reason the Left wants to pack the courts. They know they need radical activist judges to rubber-stamp their agenda.
But this federal judge just handed Democrats a catastrophic loss.
With all of the recent high-profile shootings around the country, Democrats have reignited their fight to chip away at gun rights in America.
They want red flag laws, which would give the government the right to take away guns from law-abiding citizens if their neighbors call in a report against them.
They want so-called “assault weapons” bans that would make millions of Americans felons overnight.
And finally, they want to keep inching up the age to buy a firearm. At 18, you may be able to go to war, pay your taxes, and serve jury duty, but you’re not allowed to defend yourself.
Well this federal judge just threw that proposal right out the window.
A federal judge in Virginia has declared unlawful a rule preventing licensed federal firearms dealers from selling handguns to 18- to 20-year-olds, ruling that it violates their Second Amendment rights.
In a 71-page opinion announced Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne stated that while adults under the age of 21 have the right to vote, join the military, and serve on a federal jury, there is no reason why they should be barred from purchasing a handgun under federal law.
“If the Court were to exclude 18-to-20-year-olds from the Second Amendment’s protection, it would impose limitations on the Second Amendment that do not exist with other constitutional guarantees,” Payne wrote.
“Because the statutes and regulations in question are not consistent with our Nation’s history and tradition, they, therefore, cannot stand,” he wrote.
His reasoning was largely influenced by the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, which stated that courts must consider the country’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation” while determining the constitutionality of a gun restriction.
That landmark decision paved the way for gun owners and Second Amendment groups to successfully challenge long-standing gun control regulations.
Since the Bruen ruling, courts have deemed illegal restrictions such as federal provisions aimed at keeping guns out of the hands of domestic abusers and defendants facing felony charges, as well as a prohibition on having guns with the serial number erased.
A federal judge recently referenced the Supreme Court judgment in his decision to overturn a Minnesota statute that barred 18- to 20-year-olds from obtaining permits to carry pistols in public. Last year, a Texas judge overturned a similar legislation on firearms restrictions for young adults.
Payne noted in his ruling, citing the 2022 Supreme Court ruling, that the government failed to show “any evidence of age-based restrictions on the purchase or sale of firearms from the colonial era, Founding or Early Republic.”
The absence of comparable rules from previous eras suggests that the “Founders considered age-based regulations on the purchase of firearms to circumscribe the right to keep and bear arms confirmed by the Second Amendment,” he stated.
This class action lawsuit was filed by John Corey Fraser, 20, and other plaintiffs who claimed that the Gun Control Act of 1968 and subsequent ATF regulations were unconstitutional because they barred all adults under 21 from “exercising the right to keep and bear arms.” According to the lawsuit, Fraser, 20, attempted to purchase a Glock 19x handgun from a licensed dealer but was denied down.
Elliott Harding, an attorney for Fraser, expressed satisfaction with Payne’s judgment and expressed confidence that the ruling would be sustained on appeal.
“Even though it ensures that future buyers can now purchase these firearms in the federal system — one that includes background checks and other requirements — we expect the defendants will appeal,” Harding told the Associated Press.
Harding stated that 18- to 20-year-olds are now permitted to purchase handguns from private sellers, describing this as a “loophole” that is “completely unregulated.”
“This allows them to go in and buy a registered firearm, direct from a manufacturer, but they’ll also go through background checks,” he said. “They have to go through the traditional steps in purchasing a firearm.”
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
