The ongoing battle for the Second Amendment rights of adults under 21 years of age is being fought in a number of states. The latest is Hawaii, where the Second Amendment Foundation-backed lawsuit Pinales v. Attorney General for the State of Hawaii is challenging the state’s complete ban on acquisition and possession of firearms and ammunition by 18-, 19- and 20-year-old citizens.
Hawaii’s Gun, Ammo Ban For Young Adults Under the Gun
In a news release on the matter, Adam Kraut, SAF executive director, said the ban completely extinguishes the Second Amendment rights of young adults, who are free to practice all of their other constitutionally protected liberties.
“Put simply, Hawaii’s laws completely prevent adults under 21 from exercising their Second Amendment rights,” Kraut said. “In passing and enforcing these laws, Hawaii lawmakers have thumbed their noses at the Constitution, the Supreme Court, and ultimately, at the very citizen residents from whom they draw their authority. Peaceable adult citizens have the full panoply of rights guaranteed them by the Constitution, whether they’re 20, 40 or 60 years of age. These laws must be struck down.”
Bolstering The Challenge
In the latest move in the lawsuit, the SAF and its partners—Aloha Strategics, JGB Arms, and two private citizens—have filed a motion for summary judgment, asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii to declare the law unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.
“The challenged Hawaii laws are both historical and modern-day outliers,” the brief explained. “… historically no state or colony completely banned the acquisition and possession of firearms to adults under 21. And in the modern era, Hawaii is the only state that completely bans the acquisition and possession of ammunition and firearms by adults under 21.”
The real issue in the lawsuit is at what age Americans become “adults,” and for most rights, that is widely accepted as 18 years of age. However, gun-ban advocates have singled out the Second Amendment as one that somehow doesn’t take effect until citizens turn 21. To SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb, that simply isn’t acceptable.
“These adults have all the same fundamental rights as those 21 and older, to include those protected by the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb said. “Imagine if lawmakers stripped the rights of free speech, or freedom from unreasonable search or seizure, or the rights of the accused from 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds. We would be outraged. So why would we accept the infringement of their right to keep and bear arms? The Second Amendment is not a second-class right, and we will continue to fight those who treat it as such.”
Around The Nation
As previously mentioned, Hawaii is just one state where the under-21 2A battle is taking place. In California, the case PWGG v. Bonta, which is being heard by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, challenges that state’s ban on gun purchase by young adults.
Another case out of Florida, NRA v. Glass, challenges the Sunshine State’s law restricting long gun sales to Floridians under 21. And in Georgia, the state Supreme Court in June ruled that the state’s law banning possession or carry of firearms by adults under 21 does not violate the state’s constitution.
The matter is hot at the national level, too, as several organizations, including SAF, have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to consider a challenge to the federal law banning handgun purchase by adults who are 18, 19, and 20.
