A three-judge panel for the US appeals court for the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday ruled that the federal handgun ban against adults under 21 is unconstitutional. The Majority Opinion by Judge Julius Richardson, a Trump appointee, referred to our Founding Fathers for guidance on the meaning of an “armed militia.”
“We first find that 18-year-olds possess Second Amendment rights,” Judge Julius Richardson wrote. “They enjoy almost every other constitutional right, and they were required at the time of the Founding to serve in the militia and furnish their own weapons.”
“Our nation’s most cherished constitutional rights vest no later than 18. And the Second Amendment’s right to keep and bear arms is no different,” Judge Richardson added.
Tuesday’s ruling applies to 5 states of the 4th Circuit: Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
The ruling, which is sure to be appealed, was a victory for a Virginia woman, Natalia Marshall. She wanted to buy a handgun to protect herself from her abusive ex-boyfriend and to defend herself in remote rural areas where she works with horses. When she was turned down by a licensed firearms dealer because she was 18, she sued to challenge the law.
In dissent, Judge James A. Wynn Jr. said the ruling invalidated a modest and long-established effort to control gun violence. “The majority’s decision to grant the gun lobby a victory in a fight it lost on Capitol Hill more than fifty years ago is not compelled by law. Nor is it consistent with the proper role of the federal judiciary in our democratic system.”
The federal government can appeal the decision to the full appeals court or go directly to the Supreme Court, which already has one high-profile gun rights case on the docket for the coming term — a challenge to laws that restrict carrying guns in public.