Appeals court finds age-based handgun purchase ban unconstitutional | News

WASHINGTON, DC – A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that the longstanding federal ban on the sale of handguns by licensed dealers to 18- to 20-year-olds was unconstitutional because Congress did not have sufficient ground for the law in the 1960s.

In a 2: 1 ruling, a three-judge panel for the U.S. 4th District Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, found that the second amendment’s right to keep and carry guns does not belong to others constitutional rights differs from those at. begin at the age of 18, so the government must have a justification to restrict this right.

“Despite the weighty interest in reducing crime and violence, we refuse to ban either the second amendment or 18 to 20 year olds to second class status,” wrote Judge Julius Richardson for the majority.

Richardson, a president appointed by President Donald Trump, received majority support from Judge G. Stephen Agee, a president appointed by President George W. Bush.

Judge James Wynn Jr., a president appointed by President Barack Obama, wrote a dissent stating that the panel has exceeded its role as a judge and that “the majority’s decision to give the gun lobby a victory in a fight they do Lost on Capitol Hill more than 50 years ago is not required by law. “

The Justice Department will almost certainly appeal the decision taken during a seditious national debate over gun control laws sparked by day-to-day shootings as well as a series of mass shootings over the years at concerts, schools and other public places.

The Supreme Court, with a newly expanded Conservative majority of 6: 3, has pending an important case over state covert carry laws for the term beginning in October, which will be a test of how far the judges can extend constitutional gun rights outside the home .

Meanwhile, Congress has reached a partisan impasse on numerous gun control proposals, mostly backed by Democrats, and President Joe Biden has issued orders and other measures to combat what he calls an “epidemic” of gun violence .

The decision reports how in 1964 Congress, concerned about increasing gun violence, initiated a “field investigation and public hearings” and concluded, among other things, that juvenile handguns without parental consent were “a major contributor to the spread of Lawlessness and violent crime are “. in the United States.”

In 1968, Congress passed the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, which prohibited licensed dealers from selling handguns to anyone under the age of 21, but allowed shotguns and rifles to be sold to those individuals, the decision said.

Later that year, Congress amended that law through the Gun Control Act of 1968, which banned licensed dealers from selling firearms to anyone under the age of 18 and upheld the ban on the sale of handguns to those aged 18, 19, and 20

The 4th District majority noted that in banning the sale of handguns and handgun ammunition to this age group, Congress “used disproportionate crime rates to legislate overriding the rights of mostly law-abiding citizens.”

“And in doing so, Congress focused on buying from licensed dealers without establishing those dealers as the source of the weapons 18-20 year olds use to commit crimes,” wrote Richardson for the majority.

The law restricts the rights of more than 99% of this age group because “a fraction of 1% commits a disproportionate amount of violent crimes,” the majority wrote, and it is already illegal for felons, refugees, drug users and immigrants who have entered the country illegally buying guns from licensed dealers.

“The laws in question naturally prevent a more law-abiding, less dangerous subgroup of 18 to 20-year-olds from shopping in a more regulated market,” wrote the majority.

“The irony does not escape us that, according to the argument of the government, the same 18- to 20-year-old men and women whom we rely on in the armed forces for protection and who have been entrusted with the most modern weapons since our inception.” still be prevented from buying a handgun from a state-approved dealer for personal protection at home, ”wrote the majority.

There is no ban on 18 to 20-year-olds from owning, owning or using a weapon, the statement said. Dealers can sell guns to parents or guardians who they can give away to underage children, but not if the children provide the money.

If it persists, the decision would mean 18-20 year olds could buy a handgun from a licensed dealer, but not cigarettes or alcohol.

The majority also wrote that it was unclear whether the ban was effective, which Wynn warned against in the dissenting opinion.

Wynn wrote that “This will get the nation and its lawmakers caught up in a tremendous hook-22: pass an onerous ordinance and see it struck down for violating the second amendment; adopt a too revealing measure and suffer the same result. “

“This mind-win, pay-you-lose approach is a recipe for national inaction on gun violence,” Wynn wrote.

The plaintiff in the case is a 19-year-old woman who has received a protection warrant against her abusive ex-boyfriend who was arrested under the warrant for unauthorized possession of a gun and controlled substances, the ruling says.

She also works as a riding trainer and often finds herself in remote rural areas where she interacts with unfamiliar people, and she believes a handgun is the most effective means of protecting against these risks, the ruling said.