Judge in Virginia Strikes Down Federal Limit on Age of Handgun Buyers

The Virginia case was introduced by Mr. Fraser, who was 20 when he was turned away after attempting to purchase a Glock handgun from a federally licensed vendor final yr. He subsequently challenged the 1968 federal gun management regulation, and age restrictions imposed by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which is answerable for imposing the nation’s gun legal guidelines.

Already, 18-year-olds are allowed to purchase lengthy weapons, together with shotguns and semiautomatic rifles, from about 70,000 federally licensed sellers. They have been banned from buying handguns, that are the commonest weapons utilized in crimes, by such distributors — however below federal regulation, they’re legally allowed to purchase them from non-public, unlicensed sellers.

The choice would ease the best way for 18-year-olds to obtain handguns.

“It’s important for people to understand that we are not talking about selling guns to minors,” Mr. Harding stated. “It’s about closing a loophole. Eighteen-year-olds can legally buy a Glock in the parking lot of a gun store. This is about letting them walk through the front door, and going through all the same background checks they would undergo if they were buying a shotgun.”

Lawrence G. Keane, the overall counsel for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a gun business commerce affiliation, praised the choice, saying, “The case joins a growing body of case law applying Bruen and holding that age discrimination laws infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of young adults.”

Still, the Supreme Court choice recognized some limits. In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., wrote that some gun management legal guidelines that use goal licensing standards might nonetheless be thought-about constitutional.

States, Justice Kavanaugh wrote, had been usually free to require “fingerprinting, a background check, a mental health records check and training in firearms handling and in laws regarding the use of force.”