The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has handed down a major ruling in Worth v. Jacobson in favor of the Second Amendment. The opinion by Judge Duane Benton upholds a lower court in striking down a Minnesota law limiting gun permits for persons 21 years old. It is a question that could find its way to the Supreme Court once splits among the circuits develop.
As noted by scholars such as Stephen Halbrook, it is also the first appellate court to rely on the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Rahimi, which gun rights advocates argued might be a break in the dam of Second Amendment protections. That dubious claim is even less compelling after reading this opinion.
Minnesota has joined states like New York and Illinois in advancing weak arguments to the benefit of gun rights advocates. It argued that, since the Founding, states have restricted guns in the hands of “irresponsible or dangerous groups, such as 18 to 20-year-olds.” That proposition was left virtually unsupported as was the suggestion that 18 to 20-year-olds are a public danger.
Moreover, the court ruled that it would not matter:
“Minnesota states that from the founding, states have had the power to regulate guns in the hands of irresponsible or dangerous groups, such as 18 to 20year-olds. At the step one ‘plain text’ analysis, a claim that a group is ‘irresponsible’ or ‘dangerous’ does not remove them from the definition of the people.”
Minnesota also argued that the plaintiffs were required to shoulder their burden in showing that they are covered by the Second Amendment. It noted that they “did not submit expert reports or facts about the Second Amendment’s text.”
That argument is meritless. They are clearly “people” under the Constitution. The court held:
“Ordinary, law-abiding, adult citizens that are 18 to 20-year-olds are members of the people because: (1) they are members of the political community under Heller’s “political community” definition; (2) the people has a fixed definition, though not fixed contents; (3) they are adults; and (4) the Second Amendment does not have a freestanding, extratextual dangerousness catchall.”
The Worth decision by Judge Benton is a tour de force on the Second Amendment. It is well-reasoned and, in my view, right on the law.
Here is the opinion: Worth v. Jacobson
Well, they’re not second class citizens. The Left are just plain dumb.
Rahimi will give rise to other cases like this, but where the argument will be stronger that the legislature based its restrictions on a finding that one group or another is disproportionately dangerous to others. While some of the Justices may want to limit its reach, Rahimi can be said to stand for the general proposition that the 2A does not preclude disarming anyone determined to be dangerous, because that is part of the tradition of gun controls in this country, as evidenced by the laws of surety and affray, considered together. Thomas objected that neither of these types of laws on its own was analogous to the restriction in Rahimi, as Bruen demanded, but as Barrett said what mattered was the principle that the Justices could devine from the laws, not whether the laws were strictly analogous. The mischief that Rahimi will spawn is only beginning.
“Infringed”. Slowly eaten away with words not present.
I guess that is why the military starts recruiting most of its members at 18. I myself was fighting in my second Marine Infantry battalion in Vietnam when I turned 21. I guess the whole time I was fighting with 3rd battalion 1st Marines when I was 19 and 20 I should have been unarmed by the logic that 18 year olds should not be allowed firearms.
What was your MOS?
Who wants to know?
Snopes!
18-20 year olds are irresponsible and dangerous?
I know people older than that who are really irresponsible and or dangerous. I saw a elderly lady nearly run a guy over in a crosswalk, and there were two signs saying drivers had to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk.
Okay, fine. People are irresponsible and dangerous. At least many. I definitely have been at times during my life. Still, whatever age you are, I don’t know how it escaped you that it is especially true of young men. This has been established not only by insurance companies, who have the best reason to know, but also scientifically. Young men are motivated to take risks. At some point, probably consistent with testosterone levels dropping (I could be wrong), they become less so. It’s a good thing for society too although it can be tragic.
Every time that leftist go crazy about guns I remind them that 187 people will die today from Fentanyl that has come across the Biden/Kamala open border. My experience has been that it shuts them up for a day or two. It doesn’t last long because misogyny, race baiting and guns are all they’ve got. Why do they never want to talk about the open border and the 187 murders it causes every day? It’s a bid deal to the average American but not to the elites of the Democratic machine.
Any and all “bars” against adult citizens on the 2nd Amendment constitute unconstitutional infringement.
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2nd Amendment
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.