After what seemed to be a steady stream of legal decisions running counter to the Second Amendment, the good guys scored a significant victory last week.

A three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously in Reese v. ATF that the Constitution protected the right of young adults to possess handguns.

The court reversed a lower court decision against the plaintiffs, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), the Louisiana Shooting Association, and two private citizens.

The case, filed in the Western District of Louisiana, advanced to the U.S. Court of Appeals ahead of last week’s determination. The plaintiffs sought to overturn existing federal law prohibiting Federal Firearm Licensees (FFLs) from selling handguns to young adults 18-20. 

The Second Amendment guarantees the right of law-abiding adults to keep and bear arms, and the three-judge panel also considered the Fifth Amendment.

Young adults, clearly defined in the history and tradition of the U.S. as part of “the people,” are afforded equal protection under the law. Current federal law denies this protection. 

The Court was clear and concise in its ruling.

“Ultimately, the text of the Second Amendment includes eighteen-to-twenty-year-old individuals among ‘the people’ whose right to keep and bear arms is protected,” the judges wrote. “The federal government has presented scant evidence that eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds’ firearm rights during the Founding Era were restricted in a similar manner to the contemporary federal handgun purchase ban.”

FPC President Brandon Combs celebrated the ruling as a significant win “against an immoral and unconstitutional age-based ban.”

SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb echoed the satisfaction with the appeals court decision. “We have always maintained that young adults, who can vote, join the military, get married, enter into contracts, and even run for office, can also enjoy the full rights of citizenship, which includes rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment. If we can trust young adults to defend our country, we can certainly trust them to own any and all legal firearms.”

SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut declared that rights granted by the Constitution do not start at age 21.

“Today, the Fifth Circuit reaffirmed what prior courts and common sense tell us: ‘that the right to keep and bear arms surely implies the ability to purchase them,” Kraut explained. “Adults 18-20 years old are indisputably part of ‘the People,’ whose rights under the Constitution are no less than their father’s or their grandfather’s.”

Reese v. ATF will now return to lower courts after the favorable decision from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. 

Ironically, anti-gun forces in Virginia just last week advanced a proposal to raise the minimum age for purchasing a so-called “assault weapon” to 21. The appeals court decision should throw a significant monkey wrench into similar schemes by Second Amendment opponents.

The result is good news for all who defend gun rights and believe that young adults who can be trusted to be soldiers or law enforcement may purchase and carry weapons.

It will serve as a guide for other legal challenges to similar state-level laws prohibiting young adults from owning firearms. 

The victory should also bolster confidence among Second Amendment rights organizations to pursue litigation against these controversial laws. 

Now, perhaps more than ever, it is critically important for those who cherish the freedom to keep and bear arms to identify and support those groups on the front lines of the fight for freedom. Each court victory is another step toward reversing decades of attacks on fundamental rights and securing our precious liberties for future generations. 

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