Federal appeals court rules gun ban on 18- to 20-year-olds is unconstitutional

A law barring young adults from being able to get concealed-carry weapons permits is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Minnesota has not shown that the founders would have countenanced an age-based restriction on gun ownership, so its concealed-carry law barring those under 21 from obtaining permits cannot survive constitutional scrutiny.

“Minnesota claims that 18 to 20-year-olds present a danger to the public, but it has failed to support its claim with enough evidence,” wrote Judge Duane Benton, an appointee of George W. Bush, in upholding an injunction against the state’s law.

The ruling comes just weeks after the Supreme Court tweaked gun jurisprudence in the Rahimi decision, ruling that the government can bar someone from possessing a gun if he has been deemed a danger, even without a criminal conviction. That ruling slightly walked back the court’s expansive 2022 Bruen decision, which seemed to suggest many gun control laws would be unconstitutional.

Judge Benton said under his reading of the two cases, the government must show a specific reason why a group of people being restricted from gun possession would have been dangerous in the eyes of the founding generation, when the Second Amendment was crafted.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jul/16/federal-appeals-court-rules-gun-ban-on-18-to-20-ye/