Florida appeals court rules concealed-carry ban for 18- to 20-year-olds unconstitutional

A Florida appeals court ruled Wednesday that the state’s ban on concealed carry by adults ages 18 to 20 violates the Second Amendment, the court said. A unanimous three-judge panel of Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals issued the opinion reversing a concealed-carry conviction and remanding the case, the opinion states.

“Eighteen- to 20-year-olds can defend the country without restriction but can only utilize their Second Amendment right to self-defense with severe restrictions,” Judge Spencer D. Levine wrote for the panel, adding that restricting those adults “would make the Second Amendment a ‘second-class’ right,” the opinion says.

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier declined to defend the law earlier this year, and he praised the ruling on X. “In another win for the unalienable rights of Floridians, the 4th DCA agreed with our position that Florida’s law banning adults under 21 from conceal carrying a firearm is unconstitutional,” Uthmeier wrote. “We will not seek further review and will work with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to implement the court’s order,” he added.

The case arose from the 2024 arrest of Jaylen Eubanks, who was 18 at the time, the opinion says. Officers responding to a report of a person displaying a handgun detained Eubanks and found an unholstered firearm on his waist. He was charged with carrying a concealed firearm and improper exhibition of a firearm. Eubanks challenged the concealed-carry charge on Second Amendment grounds; a trial court rejected the challenge and the appeals court reversed, the opinion says.

The panel cited U.S. Supreme Court precedent including Heller, Bruen and Rahimi and said adults 18 to 20 are among “the people” protected by the Second Amendment, and that Florida failed to identify a historical tradition supporting the restriction. The opinion pointed to founding-era militia laws that required many 18-year-old men to serve while bearing arms and rejected the state’s argument that younger adults could be treated like historically restricted categories such as felons or the mentally ill, the court wrote.

Source: Original Article