A Texas judge has thrown out the state ban on young adults carrying guns in the first major ruling since the Supreme Court’s landmark decision on weapons rights, The Guardian reported.
The Texas federal judge said the state ban on people aged 18 to 20 carrying handguns was unconstitutional.
The challenge to the Texas statute that bans young adults not in active military service from having handguns in public was filed in 2021 by the Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun owners’ rights group. The group said the ban violated the US constitution’s second amendment, which says states can organize militias and that “the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed”.
Earlier this summer in June, the Supreme Court made a ruling for the first time that the second amendment guaranteed an individual right to carry weapons in public for self-defense.
The decision also ordered the federal judiciary to apply a “history-only” test when considering challenges to regulations against weapons.
The Supreme Court said regulation was constitutional only if it was similar to any that were around in the 1700s when the second amendment was ratified.
Judge Mark Pittman of the US district court in Fort Worth focused on this part of the Supreme Court ruling, ruling himself that there was no historical tradition of stopping young adults from carrying guns in public.
Pittman’s opinion repeatedly cited the new supreme court ruling. He said that there was “undisputed historical evidence” that establishes young adults “were understood to be a part of the militia in the founding era.”
Lawyers from the Texas attorney general’s office had unsuccessfully argued that there was a historical basis for determining who could carry guns based on age.
The age restriction applied only to the carrying of handguns; long guns can be bought in Texas once a person turns 18, as was the case with the 18-year-old shooter who used a semi-automatic rifle to attack a school in Uvalde, Texas, in May, killing 19 children and two teachers.
He suspended his ruling for 30 days in order to allow Texas to file an appeal.
After many mass shootings, including the devastating elementary school shooting in Texas, the state of Texas has continued to only bolster public weapon ownership and gun ownership.
Last year, Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott signed into law that Texans over the age of 21 no longer need even a license or a background check, nor any kind of training, to carry a handgun in public.
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