By Mark Chesnut The Truth About Guns
Pro-gun organizations continue to fight for the rights of young Californians, with two groups recently filing appellate briefs in a case challenging the Golden State’s ban on gun purchases by adults under 21 years of age.
On June 30, both the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) filed briefs with the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in the case PWGG v. Bonta, arguing that the ban on gun purchases by 18-, 19- and 20-year-old adults is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
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“This case, in essence, presents a simple yet profound question: may a peaceable citizen of this Nation, legally dependent on no one but himself or herself for care and protection, nevertheless be deprived of the right to keep and bear arms on account of age?” the FPC brief asks. “The Second Amendment, which is premised on the understanding that the peaceable citizens of this Nation are entitled to bear arms for their own defense, demands that the answer to this question be no.”
FPC President Brandon Combs stated that the case is a straightforward one and that many courts throughout the nation have been issuing correct rulings on the issue.
“The vast majority of courts across the country have held that the Second Amendment applies to adults under 21,” Combs said in a news release announcing the filing. “But despite clear Supreme Court precedent and all of those rulings, the district court in this case wrongly upheld the ban in a highly flawed decision. The 9th Circuit should correct course, hold that California’s ban is unconstitutional, and strike it down.”
The SAF brief makes much the same argument, stating: “The Second Amendment’s plain text extends to cover the right of ‘the people to keep and bear arms.’ ‘The people’ encompasses, as the Supreme Court has already held, all Americans.”
The brief further argues, “Every circuit court to rule on the question since Bruen has, like the district court below, held that 18-to-20-year-olds are part of ‘the people’ within the meaning of the Amendment. Two key elements of the Amendment’s text, as conclusively interpreted by the Supreme Court, remove any doubt that those courts are correct.”
Alan M. Gottlieb, SAF founder and executive vice president, said it’s time that the California law banning young adults from purchasing firearms is struck down once and for all.
“The purchase restrictions on 18-20-year-olds in California are nothing more than the normal fearmongering we expect out of the state,” Gottlieb said in a news release announcing the filing. “The discriminatory practice of banning a certain age of adult from acquiring firearms in California is an affront to the peaceable citizens who wish to exercise their full Second Amendment rights. This case has dragged on long enough and it is past time for this issue to be resolved to allow adults of all ages in California to purchase firearms.”
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