A recent ruling in a lawsuit challenging the federal ban on handgun purchase for 18-, 19-, and 20-year-old Americans found the law unconstitutional. Still, it limited the scope of the relief to the point that nearly nobody is protected from the law.
The case Reese v. ATF, brought by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), Louisiana Shooting Association, and three private citizens, sought to restore the Second Amendment rights of young adults. Instead, the ruling granting declaratory and injunctive relief was severely limited at the federal government’s request.
“In drafting its judgment, the Court appears to have adopted the Government’s position that the scope of the injunction—who’s protected by it—is a population of people that is essentially zero,” SAF said in a press release announcing the ruling. “In so doing the court simultaneously declares the challenged ban to violate the rights of individuals aged 18 to 20 but allows its continued enforcement against all of them.”
For background, a three-judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the ban on young adult handgun purchases was unconstitutional under the Second Amendment and remanded the case to the district court for entry of a judgment to that effect. The most recent judgment entered limits organizational membership relief to individuals who were members of the plaintiff organizations as of the case’s filing in 2020.
The judgment also requires the organizations to produce a list of those affected members within 21 days.
“The practical effect of this order is almost laughable if it wasn’t so frustrating and didn’t impact the Second Amendment rights of thousands of individuals,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “What the court has done here is say that this law is unconstitutional, but for an 18-year-old to avoid having their constitutional rights trounced by it today, they must live in one of only three states in the nation and have been a member of SAF at age 13. And even then, they’re only covered if SAF discloses their membership to the government under duress. We’re currently examining our options in relation to the relief granted and will vigorously defend our members’ right to free association and privacy of such.”
FPC leaders were also irate at the limited relief granted in the ruling.
“Rather than uphold the Constitution and binding Supreme Court precedent, the Court regurgitated the Trump Administration’s self-serving demand to wipe away the 5th Circuit’s ruling against the government’s unconstitutional ban and continue denying millions of peaceable adults their right to keep and bear arms,” FPC wrote in a news release. “To be clear: FPC has never provided a list of its members to the government—and never will. Our legal team is already taking action to address this appalling order urgently. We will commence appellate proceedings as necessary to protect our members and effectuate the Fifth Circuit’s decision in our favor.”
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