If someone is a citizen, they have their full rights as a citizen. They should have the ability to enjoy all of the rights protected by the Bill of Rights. After all, there’s nothing in the Bill of Rights dictating age restrictions on those rights.

But a Colorado law that goes into effect today essentially creates a second tier of citizenship. Those over 21 are basically full citizens, able to access the totality of their rights.

Those aged 18 to 20, though, not so much.

A new age restriction on gun purchases in Colorado will become official on Monday.

As of Aug. 7, only 21-year-old’s will be able to purchase “firearms,” “the frame or receiver of a firearm,” or “a firearm silencer” according to SB 23-169, which was signed into law in April.

Anyone found guilty of selling gun to someone under the age requirement could be convicted of a class-2 misdemeanor. The state’s previous age limit was set at 18-years-old, and it was also previously a felony to sell to a juvenile.

Exceptions under the new law include family members gifting guns to 18-year-old’s, officers, and active duty members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Because some animals are more equal than others.

Seriously, this bothers me a whole lot. Don’t get me wrong, I think denying military members their gun rights is especially stupid since they’re not going to buy anything more deadly than what Uncle Sam might hand them.

Still, when you carve exceptions into the law, you’re saying that some people are basically entitled to their full rights and not everyone.

Let’s also remember that part of the argument for raising the age for gun purchases is that the brain doesn’t fully develop before age 25. If that’s the case, then why did Colorado create exceptions? Are they saying that brain development isn’t an issue if the gun is a gift?

And let’s be real here, some 18-year-olds who want a gun will basically commit straw buys and it’ll be explained as a gift, thus bypassing the law here.

In other words, as per usual, nothing will be accomplished.

Yet the fact that those who are inclined to follow the law will be the only ones inhibited by this will perpetually be missed.

It’s been noted that the Club Q shooting provided at least some impetus for passing this law, which is interesting since that shooter was 22 at the time of the shooting, which means he wouldn’t have been tripped up by this law in the least.

So Colorado created a two-tier citizenship system all because of a shooting that such a system wouldn’t have prevented even if it had been the rule for decades. Absolutely nothing about that is shocking, though, because we know what happens after a mass shooting. Anti-gun lawmakers use it as a pretext to push for the laws they wanted all alone. They don’t care about addressing what happened, only about preventing people from having guns as much as possible.

That’s what’s really behind this law in Colorado. However, because of the carve-outs for certain groups, we also know it really is a case of all animals might be equal, as George Orwell wrote, but some animals are more equal than others.