In the wake of a contentious legal issue concerning age-based restrictions on gun sales, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul is once again taking steps to uphold such restrictions, attracting opposition from pro-gun rights advocates.
The Attorney General led a coalition of 21 attorneys general to file an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, defending the federal government’s prohibition on the sale of handguns and ammunition by federally licensed retailers to individuals under 21.
“Protecting our communities, particularly our youth, from gun violence, is my top priority as Attorney General,” Raoul said in a May 19th press release. “The federal prohibition on the sale of handguns to individuals under the age of 21 is a commonsense restriction that protects the public from gun violence by preventing dangerous firearms from getting into the hands of those who will not use them responsibly.”
The coalition of attorneys general argue that the Second Amendment allows governments to impose varying regulations to safeguard the public, which includes age-based restrictions on the purchase, possession or use of firearms.
They highlight that almost every state has set some form of age-based regulations on firearms in the past, with at least 19 states and the District of Columbia establishing regulations reflecting the federal minimum age requirement of 21 to purchase handguns.
However, these restrictions have come under fire from pro-gun rights groups, who view them as an infringement on Second Amendment rights.
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Mark Oliva, the director of public affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), the firearms industry trade association, has voiced criticism of the move.
Oliva stated in an email to GunsAmerica, “It is hardly surprising that Attorney General Raoul is again attempting to thwart the U.S. Supreme Court’s holdings under Bruen. These age-based gun bans for adults under 21 come under valid scrutiny given the Supreme Court’s history and tradition test, instead of the unconstitutional interest-balancing test that was expressly rejected by Bruen decision.”
The dispute pivots on a recent ruling by a federal judge in Virginia, who found that the federal prohibition on handgun sales to adults younger than 21 violates Second Amendment rights.
Judge Robert E. Payne rejected arguments in Fraser v. ATF by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and gun control groups suggesting that adults under 21 could have parents buy a gun for them or purchase one from a private party, explained Oliva.
“Judge Payne noted that relying on a third-party to acquire a firearm still implicates and infringes on the rights of young adults. The crux of the issue is a blanket, age-based prohibition on buying arms that the Supreme Court has already said are protected by the Second Amendment,” said Oliva. “There is a growing body of case law applying Bruen and holding that age discrimination laws infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of young adults.”
Raoul’s amicus brief in the 5th Circuit was joined by the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin.
As always, stay tuned for updates. This fight is far from over.
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Raoul is a creature of the Cook County Democratic party. Until Chicago area voters leave the Democratic plantation Illinois will continue its downward slide.
Kwame Raoul is the AG who has threatened to use the Illinois State Police is house to house raids against gun owners who don’t register their guns by the end of this year. Trampling people’s rights gets him off.
Kwame Raoul is the AG who has threatened to use the Illinois State Police is house to house raids against gun owners who don’t register their guns by the end of this year. Trampling people’s rights gets him off.
That may be true in your country there Rauel, but this is the United States of America! Personally, I don’t think you or any foreigner should hold ANY American government position!
Educate your spawn for professional work, do not just let them grow like weeds to be hillbillies.
Yea then they can work for Bud lite or be as smart as those Columbia college students who think men can have a baby lol.
At 17 years old, I qualified on the M16A1,M1911A1 ,M79 grenade launcher, M60 squad automatic, A/N 50cal HB heavy machine gun,M3 submachine gun,shot gun, M72 LAW, Claymore anti personal mine,various, fragmentation/ thermal grenades, miltary pyrotechnics,shaped,platter,ribbon charges,fuze igniters,det cord,time fuze.M 109 self propelled howitzer and all its munitions including nuclear. This snieviling little Bolshevik with a foreign name wouldn’t have trusted me with a 22 pistol to hunt squirrels.
Young drivers kill/maim exponentially more people than young gun owners. Raise the legal driving age!! (and the voting age, draft age)
Also be a great idea to prohibit people with mental illness from being elected, or serving in the Federal bureaucracy.
“Also be a great idea to prohibit people with mental illness from being elected, or serving in the Federal bureaucracy.”
That would exclude the majority of current officials.
It would be the end of the demonkkkRAT party.
Then raise the voting age to 21, the draft age to 21, and anything else one is required to be an “adult” to do. Interestingly, many people in the mindset of raising the age of owning a firearm to 21 support lowering the voting age to as low as 16. How can one be responsible enough to vote but not be responsible enough to own a firearm.
I guess another option is just to identify as a 21 year old… Isn’t that how it works now?
Interesting, but the question should be “How did our Founding Fathers feel about firearm ownership in America?”
It may be laid down as a primary position, and the basis of our system, that every Citizen who enjoys the protection of a free Government, owes not only a proportion of his property, but even his personal services to the defence of it, and consequently that the Citizens of America (with a few legal and official exceptions) from 18 to 50 Years of Age should be borne on the Militia Rolls, provided with uniform Arms, and so far accustomed to the use of them, that the Total strength of the Country might be called forth at a Short Notice on any very interesting Emergency.
A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite.
George Washington
So according to President George Washington, the federal Gov-ment should “issue” me the same weapons they issue service members, make sure I know how to properly use them and that at a moments notice I can stand ready to defend America from the forces of evil.
These politicians are such hypocrites! Then they turn around and say children have aright to change their gender! 2hatever suites their agenda!
This boils down to, “at what age do individuals become mature enough to be responsible gun owners”? Therefore, the same question should also be asked about voting age. If, the answer is 21, then the same burden should apply to voting as well. A ballot in the hands of an irresponsible voter is far more dangerous to society that a gun in the hands of a lunatic.
At 18 I remember shooting M14’s and throwing hand grenades in boot camp. Also, bayonet use on practice field along with thousands of other 18 year olds…
Why not look for history of mental illness as a reason to ban purchase of weapons. Several mass shooters have a history of being loony as hell and can still buy weapons.
“Protecting our communities, particularly our youth, from gun violence, is my top priority as Attorney General,”
Orwellian people like the AG talk about guns from a third person point of view. It reads like the innocent youth are being victimized by an inanimate object. The intentionally dishonest style frames the issue in a manner that instantly ignores a the real failings of a once great society and a descent into cultural madness.