A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled the federal government’s long-standing ban on federally licensed firearms dealers selling handguns to adults aged 18 to 20 is unconstitutional.
The Louisiana-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit’s decision in Reese v. ATF, a case brought by young adults and supported by the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and the Second Amendment Foundation, marks a major victory for Second Amendment advocates.
In its opinion, the court relied on the Supreme Court’s 2022 ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which established that modern firearm laws must align with historical tradition. Writing for the three-judge panel, U.S. Circuit Judge Edith Jones stated that the government failed to present sufficient historical evidence that similar age-based restrictions existed at the time of the nation’s founding.
“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 court 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.”
Congress first enacted the restriction in 1968 with the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act, but Thursday’s ruling is the first time a federal appeals court has struck it down. The decision overturned the Fifth Circuit’s 2012 ruling, which had upheld the ban before the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision reshaped Second Amendment law.
Brandon Combs, president of FPC, called the ruling “yet another critical FPC win against an immoral and unconstitutional age-based gun ban.” He added, “We look forward to restoring the Second Amendment rights of all peaceable adults throughout the United States.”
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The decision marks the first major firearms-related decision since President Donald Trump took office. The Justice Department, which defended the ban under President Joe Biden, has not commented on whether it will appeal.
The ruling applies only to the states within the 5th Circuit: Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.
