Florida Shooters Network

Saying the restriction is “fully consistent” with “historical tradition,” lawyers for Florida are urging an Atlanta-based appeals court to uphold a law preventing people under age 21 from purchasing rifles and other long guns.

Florida’s lawyers, in a brief filed Friday, said the Supreme Court held courts must “examine our ‘historical tradition of firearm regulation,’” referring to a major decision in an earlier case known as New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.

Quoting from the Rahimi decision, the state’s brief said that previous court rulings about gun rights “were not meant to suggest a law trapped in amber,” because the Second Amendment “permits more than just those regulations identical to ones that could be found in 1791.”

The Florida law prevented the purchase of long guns by people under 21 but allowed them to use or possess them, which is “fully consistent” with the nation’s history, lawyers for Attorney General Ashley Moody’s office wrote in the brief. For example, a person under 21 could receive a gun as a gift from a relative.

“Florida’s law restricting the purchase, but not possession or use, of firearms by those under 21 is consistent with the principles that underpin our regulatory tradition. At the (nation’s) founding, individuals under 21 were considered lacking in the requisite judgment and reason to enter into contracts, which at the time were necessary to purchase firearms because such goods were bought on credit in early America’s agrarian economy. States recognized this common-law limitation when enacting their militia laws,” the brief said.

The Florida law “fits neatly within” the nation’s “historical tradition,” the state’s lawyers argued.

“The purpose of Florida’s law is the same as those historical restrictions — preventing those who the founders considered to lack capacity from purchasing firearms, while allowing parents to facilitate their possession and use,” the brief said.

“Taken together, the historical record demonstrates that the common law curtailed minors’ ability to purchase firearms, and the founders expressed no concern about that limitation,” Moody’s lawyers argued.

States began passing restrictions on ages to purchase guns in 1855, as guns became more powerful and more readily accessible, the state’s brief said.

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/2024/ ... -under-21/

Friday, August 30, 2024
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov
SACRAMENTO — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today joined a multistate coalition of attorneys general encouraging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, sitting en banc, to affirm a 2021 district court decision rejecting a Second Amendment challenge to a Florida law that prohibits any person under the age of 21 from purchasing firearms and prohibits federally licensed firearms dealers from selling firearms to anyone younger than 21. The brief, filed in National Rifle Association v. Commissioner, warns that an opinion of the full court striking down the Florida law could undermine efforts by states to protect their citizens through the application of similar age limitations laws.

“States need the freedom to develop individualized firearms regulations tailored to the specific public safety needs and circumstances in their jurisdictions,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Many states across the nation, including California, impose some age-based restrictions on the possession, purchase, transfer, or use of firearms, reflecting their collective judgment that such laws promote public safety and curb gun violence within their borders. I stand with Florida and other states dedicated to safeguarding commonsense gun laws.”

Plaintiffs challenged Florida’s age limit law on the ground that it unduly infringes upon the Second Amendment rights of individuals aged 18 to 20. But the district court rejected that claim in 2021 based on a historical record that provides abundant evidence of a longstanding tradition of limiting access to firearms for those under age 21. In 2023, a three-judge panel for the Eleventh Circuit assessed the challenge under the new legal framework from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, and affirmed the district court’s decision to uphold Florida’s law. The Second Amendment allows governments to enact sensible and varied regulations designed to protect the public as long as those regulations are consistent with the nation’s historical tradition.

These efforts continue the ongoing work of Attorney General Bonta to protect the public from gun violence. Recently, the Attorney General launched a first-in-the-nation Office of Gun Violence Prevention, took legal action against ghost gun retailers, advocated for and defended commonsense gun laws, worked on the ground to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous individuals, and announced Senate Bill 2 (SB 2), to strengthen California's existing concealed carry weapon (CCW) laws. California’s Assembly Bill 1594 (AB 1594), which was sponsored by Attorney General Bonta and signed into law in July 2022, creates a pathway for Californians who have been harmed by gun violence to hold the appropriate parties — including gun manufacturers and distributors — accountable.

Attorney General Bonta joins the attorneys general of Illinois, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington in filing this amicus brief.

https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/ ... strictions