We’ve reported several times over the past year how 18- to 20-year-old gun owners in many states are denied their Second Amendment rights despite being considered “adults” for other constitutionally protected freedoms. It’s a travesty, and many such laws have been taken to court.
The tide is turning, however. On Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit saw things our way, ruling that a Minnesota law banning 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds from carrying a concealed firearm is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment. In the case Worth v. Jacobson, the St. Louis-based circuit court unanimously affirmed a lower court’s decision striking down the law.
“Minnesota has not met its burden to proffer sufficient evidence to rebut presumptions that 18 to 20-year-olds seeking to carry handguns in public for self-defense are protected by the right to keep and bear arms,” the ruling stated. “The Carry Ban violates the Second Amendment as applied to Minnesota through the Fourteenth Amendment, and, thus, is unconstitutional.”
The circuit court used the second requirement of the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen in determining whether there was a historical precedent for such a ban.
“Minnesota did not proffer an analogue that meets the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of the Carry Ban for 18 to 20-year-old Minnesotans,” the opinion stated. “The only proffered evidence that was both not entirely based on one’s status as a minor and not entirely removed from burdening carry—Indiana’s 1875 statute—is not sufficient to demonstrate that the Carry Ban is within this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
In the opinion, the court also quoted significant points made in the Supreme Court’s 2010 McDonald v. Chicago decision.
“A legislature’s ability to deem a category of people dangerous based only on belief would subjugate the right to bear arms ‘in public for self-defense’ to ‘a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees,’” that ruling stated.
The lawsuit was filed by three gun rights organizations—the Firearms Policy Coalition, the Second Amendment Foundation and the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus—through their members Kristin Worth, Austin Dye, Alex Anderson and Joe Knudsen.
Brandon Combs, FPC president, said the ruling is yet another big victory for young adults and for American freedom.
“This decision confirms that age-based firearm bans are flatly unconstitutional,” Combs said in a news release announcing the decision. “All peaceable people have a natural right to carry firearms in public, and adults under the age of 21 are no exception.”
Combs added that the win also proves that the organization’s strategy of winning back denied Second Amendment rights in court is working.
“Securing the right to keep and bear arms for all peaceable people is a key element of our high-impact strategy,” he said. “This case is another example of our work and the truth prevailing over tyrants and their pet gun control advocacy organizations like Everytown. We look forward to continuing our successful work to create maximal liberty throughout the United States.”
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