CLARKSBURG – A federal judge has ruled that a law prohibiting handgun sales to people ages 18 to 20 is “facially unconstitutional.”
U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh granted a summary judgment December 1 in a case filed last year by Steven Robert Brown, Benjamin Weekley, the Second Amendment Foundation and West Virginia Citizens Defense League.
The federal age restriction of 21 for the purchase of handguns from federal firearms licensees was established by the Gun Control Act of 1968. The plaintiffs argued the age ban limited their ability to purchase guns and ammo from licensed dealers as well as infringed on their Second Amendment rights.
Kleeh’s ruling noted the incongruity of allowing under-21s to possess handguns but not being able to purchase them.
“Because plaintiffs’ conduct – the purchase of handguns – ‘fall[s] [within] the Second Amendment’s ‘unqualified command’ and the challenged statutes and regulations are not ‘consistent with the nation’s historic tradition of firearm regulation,’ the court finds 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) facially unconstitutional and as applied to plaintiffs,” Kleeh wrote in the 40-page memorandum opinion and order.
The complaint alleged injuries from the defendants’ statutory prohibition against 18-to-20-year-olds from purchasing handguns and handgun ammo. Brown and Weekley both attempted to purchase handguns from federal firearm licensees in June and July 2022. Each FFL refused the sales because Brown and Weekley were under 21.
Kleeh also ordered the defendants – the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, ATF Director Steven Dettelbach and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland – from enforcing the provisions “against plaintiffs and otherwise-qualified 18-to-20-year-olds.”
“This is a huge victory for Second Amendment rights, especially for young adults,” SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut said in a statement about the ruling. “The Biden Justice Department argued that people in this age group were not adults, which was patently ludicrous.
“The government simply could not defend the constitutionality of the handgun prohibition, and Judge Kleeh’s ruling makes that clear.”
The founder of SAF agreed.
“There was never any historical evidence supporting this arbitrary ban on the purchase and ownership of handguns by young adults,” said Alan M. Gottlieb, who also is SAF’s executive vice president. “As we maintained all along, history goes in the opposite direction.
“At that age historically, young adults were considered mature enough to serve in the militia, the military and take on other responsibilities. We’re delighted with the judge’s ruling.”
The plaintiffs were represented by John H. Bryan of Union and SAF’s Kraut.
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia case number 1:22-cv-00080
