Gun control advocates thought they were reasonable when they started pushing to ban the sale of long guns to anyone under the age of 21. After all, didn’t the killer in Parkland buy an AR-15 when he was just 19? Surely, they argued, this is proof that maybe young adults shouldn’t be able to buy “weapons of war.”

However, there was a problem in their logic. You see, the issue is that the Second Amendment is a constitutional right, yet now in some states, legal adults are barred from exercising that right despite having done nothing wrong their entire lives. After all, federal law already bans them from owning handguns.

Now, a crowdfunding effort to combat this ban on handgun purchases is seeking to raise money to fight against this travesty.

We are young adults in Virginia seeking to challenge the United States federal ban which infringes on our right to purchase common handguns and ammunition from federally licensed firearm dealers (FFLs). We are college students and recent high school graduates between the ages of 18-20 residing in Central Virginia. The federal laws currently allow us to purchase rifles and shotguns from FFLs, but not pistols. Several states are now passing legislation to raise the age to purchase these other firearms. We want to have the ability to purchase handguns, as they are the most traditional forms of self-defense, given their portability, size, and ease to which young men and women can be trained.

The plaintiffs include a number of college students and recent high school graduates who are negatively impacted by this ban.

“We would rather not have to find family members or friends to purchase these firearms,” they argue, “especially because we want to avoid any sort of ‘straw man’ purchase (which is understandably illegal).”

Overturning the ban on an age limit for handguns could accomplish a number of things.

For one, it can free people ages 18 to 20 to still arm themselves in states that have taken away their ability to purchase weapons for self-defense. They’ll be able to arm themselves legally in these states, regardless of the laws on long guns.

A court decision might also create a setting where new laws restricting handgun ownership based on age can’t be passed. This would be a clear win for younger potential gun owners.

However, there’s also another aspect to this. Argued correctly, a Supreme Court decision against age limits for firearms could overturn laws doing that for long guns throughout the nation. It could wipe away the string of recent wins by gun control advocates which created age limits for long gun purchases in one fell swoop.

That would serve as a demoralizing defeat for anti-gun groups and likely choke much of their fundraising efforts.

As of this writing, the effort has raised $1,475 of the $2,500 goal with still 27 days left. If you’re in a position to donate, please kick in a few bucks to help combat this ridiculous law. We allow 18-year-olds to vote, why are we restricting them from owning the ideal self-defense tool?