For the second time, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals has declared that the state of Pennsylvania violated the Second Amendment rights of young adults by preventing them from lawfully bearing arms in self-defense. 

On Monday, the appellate court issued its second opinion in Lara v. Commissioner Pennsylvania State Police, but the new opinion jibes with what the court had to say previously. After that initial ruling, the state appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices remanded the case back to the Third Circuit to reconsider in light of Rahimi decision, but after conducting another analysis a three-judge panel on the Third Circuit held that the  Rahimi case had no impact on their original decision, and ordered the district court to grant the injunction requested by the plaintiffs. 

The lawsuit stemmed from the fact that in Pennsylvania you have to be at least 21 in order to apply for a concealed carry license. Adults under 21 can open carry, but not during a state of emergency. At the time the lawsuit was filed, the state had been in an "uninterrupted state of emergency for nearly three years” thanks to gubernatorial proclamations about the COVID-19 pandemic, the opioid overdose crisis, and Hurricane Ida, which meant that adults under the age of 21 had no way of lawfully bearing arms in self-defense. 

Writing for the majority, Judge Kent A. Jordan pointed out the flaws in Pennsylvania's argument that 18-to-20 year olds aren't a part of "the people" who possess the right to keep and bear arms. While those under the age of 21 might have been treated as minors in many respects at the time of the Founding, that is certainly not the case today. And just as the Second Amendment protects arms that weren't around in 1791, it also protects the right of "the people" as we understand that term today. 

It is undisputed that 18-to-20-year-olds are among “the people” for other constitutional rights such as the right to vote (U.S. Const. art.I, § 2; id. amend. XVII), freedom of speech, the freedom to peaceably assemble and to petition the government (id. amend. I), and the right against unreasonable searches and seizures (id.amend. IV). Heller cautions against the adoption of an inconsistent reading of “the people” across the Constitution. Indeed, wholesale exclusion of 18-to-20-yea rolds from the scope of the Second Amendment would impermissibly render “the constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense … ‘a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees.’” 

We therefore reiterate our holding that 18-to-20-year olds are, like other subsets of the American public, presumptively among “the people” to whom Second Amendment rights extend.

Pennsylvania's attorneys also argued that the lawsuit brought by the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition, and several individual plaintiffs should be moot because the individual plaintiffs are now all over the age of 21 and the state has amended its law on declared emergencies to limit them to 21 days. Though the state is not under any declared emergency at the moment, the Third Circuit still rejected the mootness argument, noting that "while lengthy emergencies may now be less likely because of the recent constitutional amendment, the risk of regulated persons being unable to fully litigate this Second Amendment issue ha sincreased since the adoption of the new constitutional amendment." And because emergencies "may last for only twentyone days, absent intervention from the General Assembly, it is highly unlikely that there will be enough time to fully litigate a claim," which would leave under-21s without any recourse or access to their Second Amendment rights. 

SAF founder and EVP Alan Gottlieb applauded the decision. "There is no language in the Second Amendment that applies only to some age-exclusive subset of the people,” he observed in an press release, adding, “We’re delighted the Third Circuit once again has ruled in our favor, and we will continue defending that position.”

Young adults are still adults, and they must possess the same right to keep and bear arms as those of us who are a little more seasoned. If not, then the Second Amendment really is a second-class right, and the Supreme Court has assured us that's not the case. I'd like to see SCOTUS back up that assertion by striking down Maryland's ban on so-called assault weapons and Rhode Island's ban on "large capacity' magazines int he months ahead, but at least the Third Circuit got it right when it comes to under-21s and their 2A rights.