By: Kayleigh Hamilton
It was a bad day in court for anti-gun advocates.
They did not get the answer from the judges that they were hoping for.
And the ruling that they received will be a brutal setback for their gun control plans.
It can be a nerve-racking experience for gun owners to watch court cases involving the Second Amendment, as it really just depends on the judge who is presiding over the case.
Some judges are very friendly to gun rights and will hand down favorable rulings, and others are quite hostile.
Many were watching a case play out that involved age restrictions on the ability to buy firearms.
Of course, no other constitutional right is age-restricted. Congress or a state legislature could not pass a law saying that 18- to 20-year-olds couldn’t speak about politics, or couldn’t practice a certain religion.
If every other constitutional right applies to all adults in the United States, why would the Second Amendment be any different?
Thankfully, gun rights supporters got a favorable ruling from a panel of judges who were overseeing this case, and the anti-gun lobby received a setback they weren’t expecting.
According to the Associated Press, “Minnesota’s law that bans people ages 18 to 20 from getting permits to carry guns in public is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, affirming a lower court decision that concluded the Second Amendment guarantees the rights of young adults to bear arms for self-defense.”
“The three-judge panel cited a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights in 2022 and a major decision last month that upheld a federal gun control law that is intended to protect victims of domestic violence.”
It would be inconceivable for a law to stand that, for example, allowed 18- to 20-year-olds to be given cruel and unusual punishment.
Since everyone agrees that particular constitutional right applies to everybody, the Second Amendment should apply to everybody as well.
Here is what the judges said: “Minnesota has not met its burden to proffer sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption 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 article continues, “U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez reluctantly struck down the Minnesota law in March of 2023 but granted the state’s emergency motion for a stay, keeping the ban in place until the state’s appeal could be resolved. Her ruling was an example of how the 2022 Supreme Court case, known as the Bruen decision, upended gun laws nationwide, dividing courts and sowing confusion over what restrictions can remain in force.”
Of course, the Associated Press does not seem particularly happy about the fallout from the Bruen decision, but gun owners certainly are.
It is now harder than ever for activist judges or anti-gun politicians to strip their rights away, given the Supreme Court decision.
And now 18- to 20-year-olds in Minnesota, and elsewhere, who would like to buy guns can rest easier knowing that their rights have been protected.