A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld federal law Wednesday mandating 21 years as the minimum age for handgun purchases.
The federal law was challenged in light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Bruen (2022), which requires that gun controls in the 21st century be tested via national historicity and by whether a said control would have been acceptable to those living in the era of our nation’s founding.
After the Bruen decision was handed down, Justice Clarence Thomas looked at the totality of Bruen, Heller (2008), and Chicago (2010), and said, “The test courts must apply is whether a firearms restriction would have seemed reasonable to the founding generation that crafted and ratified the Second Amendment. If not, the law must give way to the Constitution.”
In the Fourth Circuit panel, two judges–Harvie Wilkinson and Toby Heytens–voted to uphold the minimum age of 21 while judge Marvin Quattlebaum dissented.
Courthouse News Service noted that Wilkinson wrote the majority opinion, wherein he said, in part, “From English common law to America’s founding and beyond, our regulatory tradition has permitted restrictions on the sale of firearms to individuals under the age of 21.”
The panel’s decision includes the order that the case be “reversed and remanded with directions to dismiss.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, a Pulsar Night Vision pro-staffer, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly:
