In a crucial ruling, a three-judge panel in the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a lower court and remanded a challenge of the federal ban on handgun sales to young adults in the 18-20-year age group, declaring the restriction to be unconstitutional.
It is a win for the Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a long-running case known as Reese v. ATF. The unanimous decision was issued Thursday.
SAF is joined in the case by the Firearms Policy Coalition, Louisiana Shooting Association and two private citizens, Emily Naquin and Caleb Reese, for whom the case is named.
Writing for the court, Circuit Judge Edith Hollan Jones, a Ronald Reagan appointee, stated, “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.’ 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.”
Joining Judge Jones are Chief Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee, and Circuit Judge Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale, a George H.W. Bush appointee. Their decision relies on guidelines set forth by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2022 Bruen ruling.
“We’re delighted the Fifth Circuit took this action,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We have always maintained that young adults, who can vote, join the military, get married, enter into contracts and even run for office can also enjoy the full rights of citizenship which includes rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. If we can trust young adults to defend our country, we can certainly trust them to own any and all legal firearms.”
“Today the Fifth Circuit reaffirmed what prior courts and common sense tell us: ‘that the right to keep and bear arms surely implies the ability to purchase them,’” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “Adults 18-20 years old are indisputably part of the People, whose rights under the Constitution are no less than their father’s or their grandfather’s.”
In the 29-page ruling, Judge Jones also noted, “The government argues that a limited ban on the purchase of handguns from FFLs is not an infringement on the Second Amendment rights, and in any event eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds are not among ‘the people’ protected by the right. We reject these points.”
The Bruen decision did away with means-end scrutiny in deciding Second Amendment cases, and instead ruled that today’s gun laws must have be consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Back in 1789 when the Constitution was ratified, there were no restrictions on firearms ownership by young adults, and in this case, the government failed to show how today’s prohibition is analogous to firearms regulations at the time of the founding.
