A Texas gun control law that banned 18-20-year-olds from being licensed to carry handguns outside the home was ruled unconstitutional by a Texas District Court judge on Thursday. The ruling is for 30 days, pending the state’s appeal. If they do not prevail in the appeal, the ruling will become permanent.
The issue is whether prohibiting law-abiding 18-to-20-year-olds from carrying a handgun in public for self-defense is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” Judge Pittman wrote in his opinion. “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.”…
1. To the extent that Texas’s statutory scheme, TEX. PENAL CODE § 46.02(a) and TEX. GOV’T CODE §§ 411.172(a)(2), (g), (h), (i), prohibits law-abiding 18-to-20-year-olds from carrying handguns for self-defense outside the home based solely on their age, this statutory scheme violates the Second Amendment, as incorporated against the States via the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Defendants and all their officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys, and other persons who are in active concert or participation with them are hereby ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from enforcing Texas’s statutory scheme against law-abiding 18-to-20-year-olds based solely on their age.
The Plaintiffs, which included the Firearms Policy Coalition, and two adults in the age range, argued that the Texas law was outside the historical record.
“Texas cannot point to a single Founding Era law that prohibited 18-to-20-year-olds from carrying a functional firearm for self-defense, because not only did no such law exist, but those individuals are an important reason why we have a Bill of Rights in the first place. And young people have just as much a right to keep and bear arms in public as adults over the age of 21.”
Plaintiff argument (CNN)
Texas has generally been more permissive than blue states regarding firearms. The two plaintiffs told the judge that they frequently travelled to other areas and wanted to have their firearms with them for self defense. They couldn’t do that because of the Texas law. The judge agreed in his 23 page ruling.
It’s only for 30 days until or if the State of Texas appeals. But it’s a step forward the 18-20-year-olds to have the same rights as the rest of America. The fact is that all of the recent mass shootings were not committed by law-abiding gun owners – they were people with severe mental issues. Perhaps states and cities should be looking somewhere besides the gun for answers.
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- School Safety: Biden’s Only Idea is Gun Control; Others Step Up with Ideas
- Tragedy Strikes In Texas And Ghoulish Opportunists Circle America — As Usual
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