FPC to Federal Court: Pennsylvania Already Lost This Case Once

There's something very wrong with how we treat age in this country. Someone old enough to die for their country isn't necessarily old enough to have an alcoholic toast to those who already did. There's something wrong about that, but as there's no explicit right to consume alcohol enshrined in the Constitution, good luck seeing that changed in my lifetime.

But the right to keep and bear arms is enshrined. Specifically enshrined, actually, and nothing in that amendment says anything about an age limit.

Unfortunately, some states restrict the rights of adults under 21 as if they were children. Pennsylvania is one of them, and the Firearm Policy Coalition, among others, is suing them for it.

In fact, the FPC is now asking for either an injunction or summary judgment in the case, saying that Pennsylvania has already lost on this issue once before.

Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced today that it filed a motion for preliminary injunction or, alternatively, summary judgment in Maines v. Bethel, asking the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to immediately block Pennsylvania's unconstitutional ban on issuing firearm carry licenses to peaceable adults under 21—or enter judgment against the Commonwealth outright.

The motion comes just days after FPC, the National Rifle Association (NRA), and FPC member Daniel Maines filed their lawsuit challenging Pennsylvania's age-based carry restrictions. It asks the court to enforce the Second Amendment rights of 18-to-20-year-old adults in light of binding precedent that FPC already secured against Pennsylvania in the Third Circuit.

Pennsylvania generally requires a carry license to carry a concealed firearm, carry a firearm in a vehicle, or carry a firearm on Philadelphia's public streets. But the Commonwealth categorically prohibits adults under 21 from even applying for those licenses. The consequences are severe: Peaceable adults who are otherwise legally eligible to possess firearms face criminal prosecution, potentially including felony charges and years in prison, for exercising the same rights available to other adults.

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"Pennsylvania has already lost this constitutional fight twice in the Third Circuit, and the Supreme Court refused to bail it out," said FPC President Brandon Combs. "The courts have made clear that 18-to-20-year-old adults are part of 'the people' protected by the Second Amendment. Yet Pennsylvania still refuses to let these peaceable adults get the licenses they need to defend themselves in their own cars, on Philadelphia's streets, and across countless public places swallowed up by federal school zones. That's not a technicality. It's an immoral, government-created trap that threatens Americans with prison for exercising their rights. We're asking the court to shut this ban down now—or enter judgment against Pennsylvania outright. FPC and our Grassroots Army will continue to Fight Forward until these unconstitutional age-based bans are eliminated everywhere."

The previous case was Lara v. Paris, where the Third Circuit held that adults under 21 are, in fact, protected by the Second Amendment and killed Pennsylvania's restrictions on their ability to openly carry firearms during "declared emergencies."

Now, they're trying to extend this victory into a broader arena, but the truth of the matter is that if they can openly carry guns during declared emergencies, then there's no reason they shouldn't be able to carry guns when it's not a declared emergency. Not from a rights standpoint, that is.

It's important to remember that Pennsylvania is a permissive open carry state. In other words, you need a permit to carry, either openly or concealed. As a result, there's currently no avenue for an adult under 21 to lawfully carry a firearm in public. They can own handguns, even if they can't buy them from a licensed dealer, and they should be free to carry them, at least in some manner.

But they can't.

That's at the heart of the current lawsuit, and it's definitely the right fight for a group like the FPC.

Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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