In May, a District Court judge in Virginia ruled that a ban on selling handguns to adults under 21 was unconstitutional. When the plaintiffs and the ATF couldn’t agree on how a restraining order would work while the case moves through the courts, Senior United States District Judge Robert Payne came down on the side of the plaintiffs.
Last night, the judge issued a nationwide order allowing handgun sales to all adults under 21 years of age. As Judge Payne wrote in his Bruen-based ruling . . .
In sum, [under Bruen] the Second Amendment right that is the subject of the claim in this case is itself a matter of great public interest. That, of course, is because “[t]he constitutional right to keep and bear arms in public for self-defense is not a ‘second class right’…. To implement that right by enjoining a legal regime that trenches upon it can hardly be said to disserve the public interest. …
In sum, people between the ages of 18 and 21 in the Eastern District of Virginia, suffer an equal burden as people of the same age in the Southern District of New York, the Central District of California, or any other district. The government’s polices affect – and harm – each of them equally. Therefore [the] categorical polices relied upon by the Government call for categorical relief.” Only a nationwide injunction will “prevent irreparable injury to plaintiffs,” who, since a class has been certified, include all American citizens between the ages of 18 to 21 who are otherwise qualified to purchase a gun. …
[T]he Court’s ruling does, and must, apply to protect the Second Amendment rights of all citizens between the ages of 18 to 21 who are otherwise eligible to buy a handgun.
Judge Payne, noting two similar pending cases, excluded the Western District of Louisiana and the Northern District of West Virginia from his order.
Read Judge Payne order here.
