5th Circuit panel: 18-20 year-olds have 'right to keep and bear arms'

Lovers of America's Bill of Rights have major cause for celebration after the decision that was just made in Reese v. ATF, which was filed way back in November of 2020.

On January 30, 2025, a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit reversed a lower court decision that had banned handgun purchases by people between the ages of 18 and 20, Breitbart reports.

The three judges on the panel were Judge Edith Hollan Jones, a Ronald Reagan appointee; Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod, a George W. Bush appointee; and Judge Rhesa Hawkins Barksdale, a George H.W. Bush appointee.

Judge Edith Hollan Jones wrote for the majority, saying that the purchase ban for 18 to 20-year-olds couldn't stand under the scrutiny of Bruen's (2022) demand for gun controls to be able to demonstrate congruency with historical tradition:

"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 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, and its 19th-century evidence 'cannot provide much insight into the meaning of the Second Amendment when it contradicts earlier evidence.'"

She continued:

In sum…[statues which ‘prohibit Federal Firearms Licensees]…from selling or delivering handguns to adults under the age of twenty-one. and their attendant regulations are unconstitutional in light of our Nation’s historic tradition of firearm regulation.

The Firearms Policy Coalition called this a "win."

FPC WIN: FIFTH CIRCUIT STRIKES DOWN FEDERAL 18-20 HANDGUN PURCHASE BAN https://t.co/wVov0A35IF pic.twitter.com/c6ZpoqJjyW

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) January 30, 2025

Jones added that the Second Amendment is meant to "prevent the elimination of the militia." Jones then pointed to founding-era documents showing 18 years as the age at which one was old enough to fight in the militia's service.

Second Amendment Foundation founder and executive vice president Alan Gottlieb cheered the decision.

"We have always maintained that young adults, who can vote, join the military, get married, enter into contracts, and even run for office can also enjoy the full rights of citizenship which includes rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment," Gottleib said. "If we can trust young adults to defend our country, we can certainly trust them to own any and all legal firearms."

Do you think that young Americans between the ages of 18 and 20 should be allowed to purchase handguns?