The National Rifle Association, Second Amendment Foundation, and Firearms Owners Against Crime filed an amicus brief in Commonwealth v. Williams, urging the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to invalidate the state’s carry restrictions for adults under 21.
Pennsylvania law forbids adults under 21 from obtaining the license required to carry a concealed firearm or transport a firearm in a vehicle. Kareem Williams, Jr., was charged with violating this law after carrying a firearm in a fanny pack while he was the passenger in a vehicle when he was 19 years old.
Our brief argues that Pennsylvania’s restrictions on adults under 21 violate the Second Amendment. The brief first explains that Supreme Court precedent establishes that 18-to-20-year-olds are among “the people” protected by the Second Amendment because: (1) the Court has held that the Second Amendment “belongs to all Americans”; (2) the Court has explained that the traditional militia—which included 18-to-20-year-olds—consisted of a “subset of ‘the people’”; and (3) the Court has made clear that the Second Amendment protects the same “people” as the First and Fourth Amendments, which both protect 18-to-20-year-old adults. The brief further explains that no historical tradition supports restricting the carry rights of 18-to-20-year-olds. To the contrary, during the colonial and founding eras, virtually every 18-to-20-year-old was required by law to possess and carry arms.
In addition to filing this amicus brief, the NRA is challenging Pennsylvania’s restrictions on the right of adults under 21 to carry firearms in federal court in Young v. Ott, which is currently before the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
Please stay tuned to www.nraila.org for future updates on NRA-ILA’s ongoing efforts to defend your constitutional rights, and please visit www.nraila.org/litigation to keep up to date on NRA-ILA’s ongoing litigation efforts.
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