At least one gun control measure upheld post-Supreme Court's landmark ruling

 Gun control measures are struggling to survive in lower courts in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling last year that firearm restrictions must align with the nation’s history when the Second Amendment was drafted — but at least one state law has survived.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld this month Florida’s ban on 18- to 20-year-olds purchasing firearms, reasoning that laws during the Reconstruction Era restricted 18- to 20-year-olds from buying pistols.

The Florida law permits young adults to carry firearms but bars them from purchasing such weapons at gun shops, a restriction that was enacted in the late 1800s, said the panel, which comprised Obama, Bush and Clinton appointees.

...The Supreme Court’s ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, issued in June of 2022, has led to a tsunami of gun control measures being halted or challenged by gun rights activists. In Bruen, the justices struck down New York’s licensing scheme that required individuals to show a special need to carry a gun in public.

The high court said the government must show that a gun control measure is consistent with America’s founding — or similar laws at the time — to meet Second Amendment guarantees. The justices wiped away New York’s law and measures in five other states that placed conditions on concealed weapons permits.

Justice Clarence Thomas’ majority opinion served as a lecture, directing judges to start taking the high court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence seriously. He said courts must determine whether a firearm restriction would have seemed reasonable to the founders who crafted and ratified the Second Amendment. If not, the law must yield to the Constitution.

The ruling sent shock waves through court systems and gave gun rights activists new ways to challenge state and federal measures restricting the use of firearms...more