11th Circuit Considering Florida’s Under-21 Long Gun Purchase Ban This Week 

The lawsuit challenging Florida’s law banning gun owners aged 18 to 20 from purchasing a long gun, as is legal in most other states, is being hashed out this week.

Testimony in the case NRA v Bondi began Tuesday before the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta. The case concerns whether the state’s law barring young adults from purchasing shotguns and rifles is constitutional under the Second Amendment.

The measure was passed by the legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Scot in a knee-jerk reaction to the gruesome mass murder at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. While federal law states that you must be 21 to purchase a handgun, only a handful of states restrict long gun purchases to 21 or over.

After passage, the National Rifle Association filed a court challenge against the ban. A federal judge in 2021 upheld the law, finding it was a kind of “longstanding” restriction that courts had upheld in the past. While the NRA appealed, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its 2022 Bruen ruling, setting new standards for deciding Second Amendment cases.

However, in March 2023, a three-judge panel of the 11^th Circuit Court again upheld the law, saying it was in line with the nation’s historical tradition of gun regulation. But the NRA asked the full appeals course to hear the case.

In a July brief filed in the case, the NRA outlined several reasons why the court should rule the age restriction unconstitutional.

“In Florida, persons aged 18 and older are legal adults for purposes of the civil rights and obligations of adulthood,” the brief stated. “Florida’s young adult citizens aged 18 to 20 can vote, contract, and marry. They may be required to appear for jury duty. And they may choose to risk life and limb by serving in our military or Florida’s law enforcement agencies. But they face prison for exercising their right to buy a firearm because Florida bans young adults from purchasing any firearm for any reason.”

As the brief discussed, this restriction violates the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

“This law is unconstitutional,” the brief continued. “The Second Amendment’s text protects young adults’ right to purchase a firearm, and the State has not proven that the ban is consistent with our Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The Young Adult Ban cannot stand. The district court upheld the ban without the benefit and guidance of Bruen. After the Supreme Court decided Bruen, a panel of this Court affirmed based on a motley assortment of incomparable and far-too-late laws from the Reconstruction Era that contradict the Founding Era tradition permitting and requiring young adults to acquire firearms.”

Pro-gun Florida lawmakers tried to repeal the law during the last legislative session, but their efforts came up short. The House passed the bill, but it later failed in the state Senate.