The idea that someone can be a legal adult, capable of deciding just about every aspect of their life, and still can’t exercise a constitutionally protected right is troubling, to put it mildly. Yet several states actually have laws in place that do just that.
Never mind that there is no historical basis for denying legal adults rights based on their age–once someone reached the age of majority, they had the full enchalada–or that while there are a small number of bad actors in that age category, most are law-abiding individuals.
Massachusetts is, unsurprisingly, one such state.
And a group of gun rights organizations, spearheaded by the Second Amendment Foundation, is trying to get the law overturned.
The Second Amendment Foundation and several partners filed a motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the state’s limits on pistols for anyone younger than 21. In Massachusetts, 18-year-olds can get a firearm ID card, but it only allows them to own rifles and shotguns that are not large-capacity or semi-automatic.
This new filing says the law unjustly targets young people without justification.
“In no other context would the American people tolerate limiting the civil rights of adults based solely on their age,” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut in a news release. “Denying adults under 21 years old the ability to possess a handgun – the quintessential firearm of choice for self-defense – is a clear violation of their Second Amendment rights.”
“Adults who are 18 years old can serve in the military, marry, start businesses, serve on juries and are tried as adults should they be accused of breaking the law,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb in a statement received by Bearing Arms. “They also possess the full panoply of civil rights enjoyed by ‘the People’ – including the right to keep and bear arms. Massachusetts lawmakers should be ashamed to have even attempted this discriminatory legal regime, and we’re thrilled for the opportunity to rectify the situation in court.”
The motion for summary judgment is just part of the judicial game. I don’t expect that to happen, and I don’t think the SAF or its partners expect it, either. They likely know there will be a fight in the courtroom before anything happens, but they have to take the steps to get there. This is, more or less, part of it.
Of course, it would be dope if it actually happened. Don’t get me wrong. I’d love to have blown this call.
But if they don’t get the judgment, don’t worry, because I believe it’s expected.
What needs to happen with one of these cases–similar laws are being challenged all over the place–is that it needs to reach the Supreme Court, where it can be officially and formally smacked down as ridiculous.
These younger adults deserve better from their respective states than they’ve been getting. They deserve better from the federal government than the handgun purchase ban they have to deal with, too.
Rights don’t filter in as you age. We cannot accept the argument that some rights are fine for certain adults who have never been convicted of anything, and others aren’t. Once you get that arbitrary, all rights are at risk. Especially gun rights.
Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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