The Supreme Court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling from Pennsylvania that allowed residents under 21 to carry firearms in public, though the justices declined for now to hear arguments in the case themselves.
At issue was a state law that barred 18-to-20 years olds from open carrying firearms during declared states of emergencies. The court’s decision tosses a federal appeals court ruling that found the law violated the Second Amendment.
The Supreme Court did not explain its ruling and no dissents were noted.
Pennsylvania, like 31 other states, sets 21 as the minimum age for certain gun rights. The state barred 18-to-20 years olds from openly carrying firearms during a state of emergency, including the one declared during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Three individual plaintiffs who wanted to carry weapons for self defense and two gun rights groups challenged the law.
Relying on the Supreme Court’s landmark Second Amendment decision from 2022, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, a divided three-judge appeals court panel found that the law was unconstitutional because there was not a similar law on the books at the time the Second Amendment was ratified.
The 2022 decision generally requires governments to point to a similar historical law in order to overcome constitutional challenges. But the 6-3 ruling, which split the court’s conservative and liberal justices, has created significant confusion in lower courts about how exact that historical antecedent must be.
Pennsylvania officials argued that the lower federal court overread the Bruen decision. Several conservative justices wrote separate opinions to note that the court’s decision said nothing about who may possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy one.
