A federal judge has struck down a law that for more than half a century has banned licensed gunsmiths from selling guns to young people under 21. The decision, dated Wednesday, represents a major setback for advocates of better gun control as they try to convince Congress to ban younger people from acquiring assault rifles.
A law that has been the subject of several legal attacks
These AR-15 type weapons, at the heart of many bloodbaths, were not common in 1968 when parliamentarians passed a law to ban gunsmiths from selling handguns to young people aged 18 to 21, on the grounds that they commit more crimes than the older ones. Since then, young Americans can obtain revolvers and pistols at private sales, in salons or through their parents, but not in businesses with a federal license, where they can buy all kinds of guns.
The 1968 law has been the subject of several legal challenges since its adoption, but had held until then. On Wednesday, Federal Judge Robert Payne, who sits in Virginia, ruled that a June ruling by the United States Supreme Court was a game-changer. The predominantly conservative High Court ruled that the Constitution protected the right of Americans to carry a gun outside their homes and ruled that the only possible restrictions should be part of the country’s history. For Judge Payne, this is not the case here: “the law and its implementing decrees are not consistent with the history and traditions of our Nation, and therefore cannot stand”, he writes in its 71-page decision.
“A judgment that will put lives in danger”
“Since time immemorial, young people have behaved like… young people. The social problem of their impetuosity and their haste precedes the founding fathers” who nevertheless had not adopted rules to prevent them from acquiring weapons, he adds. His decision, which is expected to be appealed and could end up in the Supreme Court, was strongly criticized by the association Everytown for Gun Safety, which campaigns for more restrictions on firearms.
“Young people between the ages of 18 and 20 commit homicides with firearms at a rate three times higher than adults over the age of 21,” noted in a press release one of its officials, Janet Carter, for whom the judgment “will undoubtedly endanger lives”. In 2021, firearms caused more than 47,000 deaths in the United States, including 26,000 suicides, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which refers.