Texas judge overrules ban on 18-to-20-year-olds carrying handguns because they were 'part of the militia in the founding era'

• A federal judge in Texas has overturned the state's ban on allowing people 18 to 20 to carry a handgun.
• Firearms Policy Coalition challenged the Texan law, saying it violated the Second Amendment.

A federal judge in Texas has overturned the state's ban on allowing people 18 to 20 to carry a handgun.

Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun-owners rights group, raised a complaint against the Texan law in 2021, saying that the ban violated the US Constitution's Second Amendment, which states "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

The judge suspended his ruling for 30 days to allow appeals to be filed.

The ruling is the first since the Supreme Court dramatically expanded Second Amendment rights in June.

In June, the US Supreme Court overturned a century-old gun-permit law that required people to have a "proper cause," or a special reason, to carry firearms outside their homes. As per the new ruling, the Second Amendment guaranteed an individual right to carry weapons in public for self-defense.

The judgment also stated that federal judiciaries must apply a "history-only" logic when making weapons regulations and can only be considered constitutional if it is in line with legislation in place in the 18th century when the Second Amendment was introduced.

As a result, Judge Mark Pittman of the US District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, has thrown out the state's ban on 18-to- 20-year-olds carrying handguns, saying there was no historical tradition of stopping young adults from carrying guns in public.

In finding the ban unconstitutional, Pittman wrote that "based on the Second Amendment's text, as informed by Founding-Era history and tradition, the Court concludes that the Second Amendment protects against this prohibition."

Pittman added that "the undisputed historical evidence establishes that 18-to-20-year-olds were understood to be a part of the militia in the founding era," per The Guardian.

"This decision is a significant victory for the rights of young adults in Texas and demonstrates for the rest of the nation that similar bans cannot withstand constitutional challenges grounded in history," Cody Wisniewski, a senior attorney for the group, said in a statement.

There has only ever been an age restriction on carrying handguns in Texas. Eighteen-year-olds have bought long guns for over 60 years, as did the Uvalde shooter, who killed 19 children and two teachers with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle.

"After hearing Uvalde survivors demanding common-sense gun safety measures — including raising the age to buy an assault weapon — a Trump-appointed judge in Texas just issued a dangerous ruling that would allow teenagers to carry handguns in public," said Shannon Watts, founder of the gun control group Moms Demand Action, in a statement, per The Washington Post.

Texas has consistently been easing laws related to gun access.

Last year, Governor Greg Abbott signed a new state law that allowed anyone over the age of 21 to carry a handgun in most places without a permit or training.