Not All Adults Have Equal Rights...Well Yes They Do © 2022 Phillip Evans

A Federal judge has struck down Texas' ban on 18 to 20-year-olds carrying handguns in public. I'm shocked! You mean the Second Amendment applies to those other grownups too?

Photo by Vitaly V. Kuzmin

The Bruen case was referenced in the ruling, which I suspect will be instrumental in bringing a variety of keeping and bearing arms infringements off the books.

A common argument used to justify these under 21 year old adults bearing arms in public is the fact that they are old enough to serve in the military and die for our country, and therefore should have the same rights as older adults. The counter argument is that they should then pick a branch of the military and join up if they want that right. The counter argument sounds hollow on the face of it, even more so when you factor in that 18 year old men could be forced to serve whether or not they want to, if the draft was reinstated.

And there's more on the pro side. An 18 year old without parental permission can get married, buy a house, buy a car, be legally responsible for any valid contract they might sign, and automatically go to the adult jail for any crime committed, even for a mere non-violent misdemeanor. No juvie option available.

That makes it a wrap, that if you can be handled by the law as an adult, you therefore have all your adult rights!

Another lame anti argument is the pointing to laws requiring one to be 21 to purchase alcohol, as if that had anything to do with a constitutional right, unless there is an amendment to purchase and imbibe booze somewhere snuck in by Benjamin Franklin at the last minute. And while buying such beverages is not an enumerated constitutional right (neither is eating a sandwich without mayo on Saturdays), it is still stupid to treat adults unequally with any law.

Probably the weakest anti argument is the "but 18 year-olds don't need to own or carry handguns". Really? So an 18 year old doing all the things an adult does has no need of effective tools of self-defense? No need for protection while driving, while walking to the store, while walking in a wooded park, while biking on a path, or while doing any other lawful thing out in public? Silly liberty haters, tricks are for kids.

Florida's knee-jerk liberty-hating law passed by Republicans, and lauded by Democrats,  forbidding adults under 21 from buying long guns in the wake of the badly handled Parkland school massacre is another one likely slated to be on the chopping block. 

It's outrageously ironic that government agents botched a rescue resulting in even more deaths, only for the government in response to then disarm and punish citizens wishing to defend themselves from murderers. And done by those who "support the Second Amendment". You can't write fiction stranger than this.

In Georgia, under 21 adults can carry a handgun on their own property, or in public at their place of business, or inside a vehicle that belongs to them. However, they do not get to benefit from the recent permitless carry law until they turn 21. Look for this one to go soon. If the Georgia General Assembly were to take the initiative, they could get it done early next year. Or they could sit back and wait for a court to strike down the prohibition. I suppose we will see what happens when they convene again.

Know where gun control came from and why? From White Democrats who didn't like the idea of armed Blacks.

When the fallout from Bruen forced New York to issue carry licenses, when the rich and politically connected (and vastly White), were no longer the only ones to get the government permission slip, what did they do? 

The petulant White politicians were so horrified that common citizens (many of them Black) could be legally armed in public, that faster than slave owners back then could say "go pick that cotton, boy", they passed and signed into law new prohibitions.

Criminals being armed in public was one thing but the idea of mere peon citizens being armed gave the politicians fits. Their new law has so many enumerated off-limits places, along with all private businesses unless there is a "guns welcome" sign posted, that the license is now virtually worthless.

That had the unintended consequence of giving heartburn to the elites, some of whom likely paid money or gave other favors to obtain their now devalued license, unless that law is also eventually struck down. It will be juicy seeing some of these elites turning on the elite politicians. Will they just curse them out to their face, or will they bring it public? Who knows?

With Justice Clarence Thomas carrying the ball for us, we are now finally back-to-the-future where the Second Amendment's "shall not be infringed" means what it actually says.

Be sure to join at least one or more national guns rights groups such as the NRA, Second Amendment Foundation, Gun Owners of America, Firearms Policy Coalition, etc., as well as your own state's gun rights organization. They are the ones supporting the lawsuits helping to restore our liberty.