BELLEVUE, WA – The Second Amendment Foundation and its partners in a federal case challenging the federal prohibition on handgun sales to young adults ages 18-20, has filed a reply brief supporting their motion for summary judgment in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia.
SAF is joined by the West Virginia Citizens Defense League and two private citizens Benjamin Weekley and Steven Brown. They are represented by attorneys John H. Bryan of Union, W. Va. And Adam Kraut of Westtown, Pa. The case is known as Brown v. ATF.
“We filed this case back in September,” SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb recalled, “and it is moving along, which suggests the issue is ripe. As we explain in the motion, the defendants can’t point to a single enumerated constitutional right that does not apply by the age of 18. There is no historical evidence supporting an arbitrary prohibition on purchase and ownership of handguns for young adults over the age of 18. While people in this age group are considered mature enough for militia service, duty in the armed forces and in today’s world being able to vote, run for public office, start businesses, get married, enter into contracts and enjoy the full protections set down in the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth amendments. Only are their rights under the Second Amendment impaired.”
Kraut, who also serves as SAF executive director, notes, “The Biden Justice Department argues that Congress and the states ‘expressly recognized that those under 21 years old were generally unemancipated and subject to parental authority,’ which is ludicrous. People age 18 and over haven’t been considered minors for decades, and they know it. This fact, alone, leaves them unable to defend the constitutionality of this handgun ban in a manner that comports with the Supreme Court’s directive in last summer’s Bruen decision.”
“It is long past the time for this issue to be resolved,” Gottlieb added. “Young adults should be allowed to exercise all of their constitutionally-enumerated rights, and that’s really what this case is all about.”