A federal judge overturned a ban on licensed firearms dealers selling pistols to those between the ages of 18-20.
Judge Thomas Kleeh said that the Second Amendment does not exclude 18-20-year-olds.
“The Court can discern no reason to read an implicit age restriction into the Second Amendment’s plain text,” he wrote.
“Beyond the First and Fourth Amendments, other constitutional provisions, which do not specifically mention ‘the people,’ support the Court’s conclusion that ‘the people’ protected by the Second Amendment include 18-to-20-year-olds.”
The judge added that there were no laws prohibiting 18-20-year-olds from purchasing firearms historically.
“Defendants have not presented any evidence of age-based restrictions on the purchase or sale of firearms from before or at the Founding or during the Early Republic. Defendants have likewise failed to offer evidence of similar regulation between then and 1791 or in a relevant timeframe thereafter. For that reason alone, Defendants have failed to meet the burden imposed by Bruen,” he wrote, referring to a Supreme Court ruling that required gun control laws to be founded on a historical basis.
The ruling comes as the total number of privately owned firearms in the United States has passed 500 million.
Firearm sales are expected to increase through the holidays.
“We are seeing a spike in sales of concealed carry handguns, as well as tactical shotguns, and AR-15s; very similar to what happened during COVID, but on a smaller scale. We expect this bubble to continue to grow, along with our regular bump in sales going into the holidays,” noted Justin Anderson, the marketing director for Hyatt Guns of Charlotte, North Carolina.
