Another gun-grabbing law goes down in flames as judge strikes down limits on 18-20 year-olds purchasing handguns

WEST VIRGINIA- The definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. If that is indeed the definition, then the radical anti-gun zealots must be insane. But we already knew that. 

In another win for the good guys and the Second Amendment, a federal district judge in West Virginia ruled last week that a federal law prohibiting handgun sales to people between the ages of eighteen and twenty is “facially unconstitutional” while granting summary judgment to the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). 

The Second Amendment Foundation reports that U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas S. Kleeh with the Northern District of West Virginia issued a 40-page decision, which read in part:

“(B)ecause Plaintiffs’ conduct–the purchase of handguns–fall(s) [within] the Second Amendment’s ‘unqualified command’ and the challenged statutes and regulations are not ‘consistent with the Nation’s historic tradition of firearm regulation,’ the Court FINDS 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) facially unconstitutional and as applied to Plaintiffs.” 

Judge Kleeh, an appointee of President Donald Trump, enjoined the plaintiffs–the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, ATF Director Steven Dettelbach, and Attorney General Merrick Garland–from enforcing the provisions “against Plaintiffs and otherwise-qualified 18-to-20-year-olds.” 

Kleeh’s ruling was enthusiastically embraced by Adam Kraut, Executive Director of the Second Amendment Foundation. 

“This is a huge victory for Second Amendment rights, especially for young adults,” Kraut said. “The Biden Justice Department argued that people in this age group were not adults, which was patently ludicrous. The government simply could not defend the constitutionality of the handgun prohibitions, and Judge Kleeh’s ruling makes that clear.” 

The administration’s argument that 18-20-year-olds aren’t responsible enough to purchase handguns is laughable, given the fact the same administration believes children as young as seven or eight years old can determine they are not the gender they were born as and can seek so-called “gender-affirming surgery.” 

“There was never any historical evidence supporting this arbitrary ban on the purchase and ownership of handguns by young adults,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “As we maintained all along, history goes in the opposite direction. At that age, historically, young adults were considered mature enough to serve in the militia and the military and take on other responsibilities. We are delighted with the judge’s ruling.” 

The case, Brown v. ATF, is the latest loss for the gun control lobby and is the latest fallout from the 2022 New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen decision, which struck down New York’s gun carry law while establishing a new test for gun laws. Since that decision, numerous state and federal restrictions have been ruled unconstitutional, with many still working through appeals that will likely end up at the Supreme Court. 

In his ruling, Kleeh noted that the defendants failed to produce evidence of any age-based restrictions being included in the Second Amendment. 

“Defendants have not presented any evidence of age-based restrictions on the purchase or sale of firearms from before or at the Founding or during the Early Republic,” he wrote. “Defendants have likewise failed to offer evidence of similar regulation between then and 1791 or in a relevant timeframe thereafter. For that reason alone, Defendants have failed to meet the burden imposed by Bruen.” 

The Bruen decision has flipped the gun control narrative on its head. 

According to Jake Charles, associate professor at Pepperdine University’s School of Law, dozens of gun rights claims have been upheld in federal courts since the Bruen decision in June 2022. He noted successful cases after that decision have far outpaced decisions in the aftermath of 2008’s District of Columbia v. Heller, according to The Reload. 

“There wasn’t a single successful Second Amendment challenge in the 6 months after Heller,” said Charles in a social media post. “In my research, I found *31* successful claims in the 8 months since Bruen.” 

Insanity…the left is an expert at it.