A Texas judge has ruled that the right to bear arms is not limited by age, in yet another victory for gun rights months after a landmark Supreme Court decision upheld the Second Amendment.
The judge struck down a state ban on carrying handguns for adults under 21, Fox News reported.
Another gun rights victory
The lawsuit was brought by the Firearms Policy Coalition in November on behalf of two plaintiffs below age 21.
While age restrictions are mentioned in various sections of the Constitution, they are absent in the Second Amendment, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman ruled.
“Based on the Second Amendment’s text, as informed by Founding-Era history and tradition, the Court concludes that the Second Amendment protects against this prohibition.” Pittman wrote. “Texas’s statutory scheme must therefore be enjoined to the extent that law-abiding 18-to-20-year-olds are prohibited from applying for a license to carry a handgun.”
Pittmann cited the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen decision in June, in which the Supreme Court struck down a New York law requiring people to have special reasons to carry firearms publicly.
The court ruled that the Second Amendment “presumptively protects” the right to bear arms and that the burden falls on the government to prove a firearm regulation is “consistent with the Second Amendment’s text and historical understanding.”