Ruling in Virginia has implications for Oregon
By Terry Murry on Thursday, May 11th, 2023 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
RICHMOND, Virginia – A federal judge in Virginia ruled yesterday that a U.S. government ban on handgun sales by federally licensed dealers to adults aged 18-20 violates the Second Amendment. U.S. District Judge Robert Payne ruled in favor of four young men who sued over the ban.
National media reported that Payne wrote a 71-page opinion that said in part that the new statutes and regulations are not consistent with the history and tradition of the United states and therefore “cannot stand.”
The judge stated that people aged 18-20 are part of the political community and protected by the right to bear arms as written in the Constitution. He said the government failed to show any evidence supporting age-based restrictions on the purchase or sale of firearms dating from the colonial period to the early years of the republic being established.
The government argued that teenagers’ brain development makes them too irresponsible to own handguns. Payne disagreed,
“Since time immemorial, teenagers have been, well teenagers,” he wrote. “The ‘general societal problem’ of teenage impetuousness and rashness far proceeded the founding (of the nation).”
The U.S. Justice Department is considered likely to appeal the ruling.
