Appeals Court Hands Gun Advocates Major Win in PA Open Carry Case

Democrats have been attacking the Second Amendment with everything they have for decades, but over the last few years, with all the mass shootings, they are throwing the kitchen sink at it, just hoping to chip away at gun rights.

For the most part, they have failed, and PA Democrats were just dealt another major defeat.

The Third Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled to block a new rule that would have prevented young adults from being able to open carry during a declared emergency.

Lose Again

In Madison Lara v. Commissioner Pennsylvania State Police, open carry rights for adults aged 18-20 were at stake during a declared emergency.

The case was taken up by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and then joined by the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC).

The lead plaintiff in the case, Madison Lara, was represented by Cooper & Kirk in Washington, D.C., and the Civil Rights Defense Firm in Pennsylvania.

Lara filed suit, claiming that her Second Amendment rights were being infringed upon with the new rule.

She initially won the case in the lower courts, and the state appealed the case to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court declined to take the case, insisting that the legal battle play out in the lower courts, so it was remanded back down to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

The appellate court ruled 2-1 in favor of the plaintiff, so the new rule now has an injunction against it, as the state is now likely to again appeal to the Supreme Court.

The majority opinion stated, “It is undisputed that 18-to-20-year-olds are among ‘the people’ for other constitutional rights such as the right to vote, freedom of speech, the freedom to peaceably assemble, and the right against unreasonable searches and seizures.

“We therefore reiterate our holding that 18-to-20-year-olds are, like other subsets of the American public, presumptively among ‘the people’ to whom Second Amendment rights extend.”

The dissenting vote on the court was by Judge L. Felipe Restrepo, an Obama appointee, of course. The other two judges in the case were both George W. Bush appointees, so, once again, the judges' ideology predicted this outcome.

SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack celebrated the ruling, stating, “SAF has maintained all along that 18-20 year olds are unquestionably part of ‘the people’ contemplated by the Second Amendment who have the same rights to keep and bear that any other adult has. The Third Circuit already agreed with us once, and today it reaffirmed its decision.”

It is rather ironic that we are sending 18-year-olds to war, yet when it comes to their Constitutional rights, Democrats continue to do everything they can to block them.