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RICHMOND, Va. -- A U.S. judge's ruling striking down a federal law that bans licensed federal firearms dealers from selling handguns to young adults under 21 is the latest example of how a landmark Supreme Court decision is transforming the legal landscape around firearms.
The ruling issued Wednesday by a federal judge in Virginia is just the beginning of what's likely to be a lengthy court battle over rules aimed at making it harder for 18- to 20-year-olds to get handguns.
The judge's ruling doesn't go into effect until he issues a final order that would bar the government from enforcing the age limit. The Justice Department didn't immediately comment on the ruling but is likely to appeal and could ask for the final order to be put on hold while it does.
The judge cited the Supreme Court's June decision in a case called Bruen, which changed the test that courts had long used to evaluate gun laws. The ruling has opened the door to a wave of challenges from gun-rights activists and created turmoil in the courts as judges wrestle over what gun restrictions can remain on the books.
Here's a look at the Virginia's judge's ruling, the impact of the Supreme Court's Bruen decision and what's next:
What did the
Supreme Court's
Bruen decision do?
In its Bruen decision, the Supreme Court struck down a New York gun law and ruled that Americans have a right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. The majority opinion authored by Justice Clarence Thomas also set new standards for courts to weigh challenges to firearm restrictions.
Before the ruling, courts generally took a two-step approach when examining guns, first looking at the constitutional text and history to see whether a regulation comes under the Second Amendment and then, if it does, looking at the government's justification for the restriction.
Thomas said the old standard was wrong and said courts should no longer consider whether the law serves public interests, like enhancing public safety. Governments that want to uphold a gun restriction must point to similar restrictions from history to show that the law is consistent with the country's "historical tradition of firearm regulation," the Supreme Court said.
What happened in
the Virginia case?
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Payne in Richmond said the government failed to prove that restrictions on the purchase of firearms by 18- to 20-year-olds is "part of our Nation's history and tradition." The former President George H.W. Bush-appointee said the government didn't present any evidence of such restrictions "from the colonial era, Founding or Early Republic."
The lack of similar regulations from those time periods indicates that the "Founders considered age-based regulations on the purchase of firearms to circumscribe the right to keep and bear arms confirmed by the Second Amendment," he wrote.
The case was brought by 20-year-old John Corey Fraser and other young adults who want to buy handguns from a licensed federal firearms dealer. Fraser's lawyer, Elliott Harding, noted that 18- to 20-year-olds can already buy handguns from private sellers, a process that is "completely unregulated."
They challenged the constitutionality of the Gun Control Act of 1968 and the associated regulations from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Gun control groups had urged the court to uphold the age restrictions, arguing they are constitutional even under the Supreme Court's Bruen ruling. They say Payne's ruling will put lives at risk, pointing to scientific literature that shows the brain continues to develop in the early 20s and that 18- to 20-year-olds are more impulsive than older adults.