The news that the U.S. Solicitor General will not appeal the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Reese v. ATF is a big win for gun rights and a huge blow to gun control zealots’ campaign to raise the age to purchase long guns to 21, the age required for handgun purchases from licensed dealers.
The Fifth Circuit held that the law barring handgun sales to young adults, ages 18, 19, and 20, is facially unconstitutional. When a law is facially unconstitutional, it’s absolute: There are no circumstances in which it would be constitutional. The law is basically toast.
The feds have no problem with an 18-to 20-year-old buying a handgun from a family member, a friend, an acquaintance, or at a gun show. The restrictions apply only to FFLs.
Gun-grabbers have pushed to raise the purchase age for all firearms to 21. They cite all sorts of mental health experts who happily pontificate on the immaturity of the brain, especially the male brain, and the danger of letting them buy guns at 18. The gun control fans are also alarmed by the number of 18-to 20-year-olds who have committed mass shootings after legally purchasing a gun from an FFL.
Those claims run into trouble when we look at “gun violence” more closely. Among firearm-related deaths in this group, there is a stark divide between figures with white victims and figures with black victims. According to data from the CDC, not only was the average black rate per 100,000 4.8 times higher than the white rate from 2001 to 2023, the black rate increased 44% while there was a tiny, 0.5%, reduction in the white rate.
As for mass shootings: Since 1949, there have been exactly nine people in the 18-20 age group who have legally bought a firearm and used it in a mass shooting. Nine out of nearly 12.4 million (as of 2023) over more than 70 years doesn’t appear to be a major threat, especially since the first incident was in 1994.
Senator Rick Scott should be ashamed, as should the Florida Legislature and the Eleventh Circuit. They stripped hundreds of thousands of young Floridian adults of their constitutional rights because one of them committed a mass shooting. That’s right: One in Florida’s entire history as a state.
Battle now tries to link guns to the age of majority, when a person is legally considered an adult. In the Founding Era, that age was 21. Ignorant academics and the gullible suckers who pay any attention to them claim this was also the earliest age at which Americans could buy guns.
Not once in the history of our Republic has the age to buy guns been tied to the age of majority on a widespread basis. Yes, there were some colonies/states that did, but just a few.
A careful reading of the Militia Act of 1792 requires all eligible individuals to obtain their own arms within six months of being enrolled. It was more than muskets, firelocks or rifles, too. “Privates of matoss” (a mounted member of an infantry or rifle company) were required to show up with a suitably sized horse, a sword, and two pistols.
If the Founders intended for parents to pay for the hardware, it stands to reason they would have said something in the law.
Even today, the age to purchase any gun other than a rifle or shotgun isn’t tied to the age of majority.
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment, which lowered the voting age from 21 to 18, was ratified on July 1, 1971. This effectively lowered the age of majority in most states. The Gun Control Act of 1968, which set the current minimum ages of 18 for long guns and 21 for handguns, had been in effect for nearly three years before the new amendment.
Prior to October 22, 1968, there was no federally set age for gun sales. And the new ages applied only to federally licensed dealers. Outside of those, 18 was regarded as old enough for any type of firearm not in the National Firearms Act.
Young people in most states also had the option of ordering a gun by mail from any of a number of retailers. Send in a letter with a postal money order; fib about your age; and wait for the postman who seldom checked ID. A friend of mine did this when he was about 15, IIRC, and became the proud owner of a small Beretta pistol.
While it’s great to see the Trump Administration’s positive news, it’s sad to consider all the time, effort, and money we have wasted on litigation and legislation that need never have happened at all.
About Bill Cawthon
Bill Cawthon first became a gun owner 55 years ago. He has been an active advocate for Americans’ civil liberties for more than a decade. He is the information director for the Second Amendment Society of Texas.
