The Democrats have suffered a number of legal setbacks over the past few months.
But the future doesn’t look much brighter.
That’s because a Trump-appointed judge just delivered a devastating blow to the Democrats.
The Fourth Circuit of Appeals just issued a ruling striking down a ban on selling handguns to Americans aged 18-21 years old.
In his majority opinion, Judge Julius Richardson, who was appointed by President Trump, wrote that the ability of the American people to exercise self defense was the “central component” of the Second Amendment to our U.S. Constitution.
According to Richardson, the right of the citizenry to arm itself was not just for self-defense but self-defense against tyrannical government.
Richardson wrote:
“So while the individual right of self-defense was “the central component” of the Second Amendment, the civic purpose “was codified” based on the fear that a tyrannical government would eliminate the civically minded militia. Both reflected the pre-existing right of self-defense that the Founders valued as the core purpose of the state. “In the Founders’ world, individual self protection and community defense were not wholly separate spheres.”
When the Founders ratified the Bill of Rights, Secretary of War Henry Knox specifically told Congress that the federal standard for military service in America was 18 years old.
“Around the time the Second Amendment was ratified in 1791, Congress began debating invoking its power under the Militia Clauses to better organize the militias for federal use in emergencies. The effort was pushed by Secretary of War Henry Knox, who argued to Congress that while the “military age has generally commenced at sixteen,” the age for the federal select militia should be set at 18 because “the youth of sixteen do not commonly attain such a degree of robust strength as to enable them to sustain without injury the hardships incident to the field,” Judge Richardson continued.
Richardson went on to add that since the historical record makes it perfectly clear that the Founders intended for American adults to have access to firearms, and that government had no right to deny anyone 18 years old their Second Amendment rights.
“But while Congress — or judges — may have struck a different balance long after ratification, that role is foreclosed to us by the balance that the Founders chose. We cannot now second-guess or undermine their choice. History makes clear that 18 to 20-year-olds were understood to fall under the Second Amendment’s protections,” Judge Richardson concluded.
Political Animal News will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
