By Mark Chesnut The Truth About Guns
The fight for the Second Amendment rights of 18-, 19- and 20-year-old Florida citizens is beginning to heat up again.
In late August, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case challenging the state’s ban on firearms purchases by adults under 21. In the case of NRA v. Glass, however, AG Uthmeier is on the side of young adults, and his petition asked the court to strike down the law.
Now, legislation to repeal the law, which was passed in 2018 after the mass murder at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, which killed 17 people, is back on the table. On October 8, state Rep. Tyler Sirois, a Republican from Brevard County, filed House Bill 133, designed to end the restriction once and for all.
Rep. Sirois’s bill simply strikes the number “21” from the statute’s language and replaces it with “18,” the age at which Americans are considered adults for all purposes except, apparently, the right to keep and bear arms.
“A person younger than 18 years of age may not purchase a firearm,” the new language states. “The sale or transfer of a firearm to a person younger than 18 years of age may not be made or facilitated by a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, or licensed dealer. A person who violates this subsection commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 20 775.082, s. 775.083, or s. 775.084.”
In addition to changing the age from 21 to 18, the measure also strikes language from the statute that made an exception for law enforcement officers and corrections officers.
HB 133 has been assigned to the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee. The House has passed a similar measure the past three years, but each time the Senate has failed to pass the measure.
Note that the battle for young adults’ 2A rights isn’t just being fought in Florida. Along with the NRA lawsuit in Florida, the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) is suing Connecticut over its law banning handgun ownership by adults under 21. In May, SAF filed Succow v. Bondi, which argues that age-based gun bans violate the Second Amendment rights of lawful adults who are under 21 years of age.
The federal statute banning the purchase of handguns by 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds is also under fire in the courts. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in January ruled that law to be unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
“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 in its ruling. The ruling sent the case back to a lower court judge.
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