BELLEVUE, WA – Attorneys representing the Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition have asked for a preliminary injunction in a challenge to Pennsylvania gun laws that prohibit law-abiding young adults from carrying firearms for self-defense and prevents them from acquiring a state license to carry (LTCFR) because of their age.
The case is known as Lara v. Evanchick. The Second Amendment Foundation is represented by David H. Thompson, Peter A. Patterson, John D. Ohlendorf at Cooper & Kirk, Washington, D.C. 20036. The lawsuit was filed in mid-October in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Under Pennsylvania’s state of emergency that has been in effect for more than two years, all individuals must have a valid LTCF to carry or transport firearms on public streets and property, including for purposes of self-defense and other otherwise-lawful purposes, in violation of the right to keep and bear arms.
However, under the Pennsylvania statutes challenged in the lawsuit, young adults cannot carry firearms for personal protection.
“We filed this case because the Pennsylvania laws amount to a ‘Catch-22’ requiring a state license that is not available to our individual plaintiffs in order to exercise a constitutionally-protected right,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “It doesn’t make sense when young adults can vote, join the military, get married, start companies and enter into contracts, but they can’t carry a firearm for personal protection. This amounts to a ban on their right to bear arms.”
Gottlieb noted the Second Amendment applies to 18-20-year-old young adults, who have reached the legal age of majority, because the right to keep and bear arms was incorporated to the states via the 14th Amendment in the 2010 successful SAF Supreme Court case McDonald v. City of Chicago.
“The Second Amendment says the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed,” Gottlieb said. “It doesn’t include any age provisions that might allow discrimination against young adults. People in this age group can exercise other rights protected by the Constitution’s Bill of Rights, but Pennsylvania law specifically prevents them from exercising their Second Amendment rights. That simply cannot be allowed to stand.”