This is a serious setback for the proponents of better regulation of firearms in the United States. The Virginia Federal Court of Appeal on Tuesday struck down a law that has prohibited licensed gunsmiths from selling handguns to people under the age of 21 for more than half a century.
“Our most precious constitutional rights apply from the age of 18 and the right to carry weapons guaranteed by the Second Amendment is no different,” writes Judge Julius Richardson, who had been appointed by Donald Trump. The Second Amendment to the US Constitution mentions a “right of the people to own and bear arms” but is the subject of differing interpretations in the United States.
A possible recourse
This decision can still be appealed, including before the Supreme Court of the United States, with a strong conservative majority with six judges out of nine. For the moment, it threatens a law passed in 1968 by Congress, whose elected officials had noted that young adults commit more crimes than older ones.
“We are aware of the gravity of gun violence in this country and welcome the laudable desire of Congress to curb this senseless violence,” said Judge Richardson, moreover, while 40,000 people died last year by bullets in the United States. “But we recognize that the Second Amendment embodies a fundamental and prior right that empowers people to protect their lives, their liberty and their property,” he added in his ruling, which received support from another magistrate.
On the other hand, the third judge of the Court of Appeal expressed his opposition in a separate text. “The majority decision to grant the gun lobby a victory in a fight it lost more than 50 years ago on Capitol Hill is unfounded in law,” wrote James Wynn, saying that judges should not take the place of legislators.