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US Court Overturns Ban On Handgun Sales To Adults Under 21 In Landmark Ruling

The court overturned a decades-old federal ban on handgun sales to adults aged 18-20, citing recent Supreme Court rulings expanding gun rights and historical firearm regulations.

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US Court Overturns Ban On Handgun Sales To Adults Under 21 In Landmark Ruling

A US appeals court ruled Thursday that a long-standing federal ban preventing licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to adults under 21 is unconstitutional. The decision marks a significant shift in gun rights jurisprudence, citing recent Supreme Court rulings that expanded Second Amendment protections.

The New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals said Thursday that the law, which for the first time was enacted in 1968 under the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, violated the constitutional right to keep and bear arms. This decision was the first kind after a federal appeals court upheld the restriction back in 2012.

It follows the 2022 decision of the United States Supreme Court in the landmark case of “New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen” where it provided that new firearms regulations are, in fact compatible with historical conventions of gun restriction in the US. According to this panel of three, which is hearing the case being written by US Circuit Judge Edith Jones who claims the same statutes to be unconstitutional under said precedent.

On their part, people aged 18 to 20 years old challenged the ban with gun rights groups such as the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Second Amendment Foundation that had challenged it in 2020 after an earlier lower-court ruling. In the case, the Justice Department under former President Joe Biden was defending the law but, according to Jones, failed to have substantial historical proof to back such a move which would restrict a sector of their gun rights.

Brandon Combs, president of the Firearms Policy Coalition, said the decision was a victory against “an immoral and unconstitutional age-based gun ban.” The ruling is likely to be appealed, and the case may ultimately end up in the Supreme Court.