Court Bombshell Upends Florida Gun Rules

A Florida appeals court just tore down a key piece of the state’s post‑Parkland gun control scheme, reminding lawmakers that the Second Amendment still applies to young adults.

Story Snapshot

Florida’s concealed-carry age limit was ruled unconstitutional for law‑abiding 18‑ to 20‑year‑olds.
The ruling leans on the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision, which demands real historical proof for gun limits.^[8]
This adds pressure on courts to revisit Florida’s separate ban on long‑gun purchases for the same age group.^[7]
Gun rights advocates say the state can trust young adults to defend the nation and themselves with the same rights.^[3]

What The Florida Appeals Court Just Struck Down

A Florida appeals court ruled that the state law blocking adults aged 18 to 20 from carrying concealed firearms violates the Second Amendment.^[8] The case, Jaylen Tyrus Eubanks v. State of Florida, involved a 19‑year‑old whose conviction for carrying a concealed firearm was thrown out because the age limit could not survive the Supreme Court’s Bruen test.^[8] The judges said the plain text of the Second Amendment protects 18‑ to 20‑year‑olds and that the state failed to show any real historical tradition for this type of ban.^[8]

The court stressed that if 18‑year‑olds can serve in the military and defend the country, the state cannot treat them as second‑class citizens when it comes to self‑defense at home.^[8] The opinion noted that “18‑ to 20‑year‑olds can defend the country without restriction but can only utilize their Second Amendment right to self‑defense with severe restrictions,” a mismatch the court found impossible to square with the Constitution.^[8] This is a direct rebuke to lawmakers who used the Parkland tragedy to justify broad, age‑based bans instead of targeting criminals.

How Bruen Is Reshaping Gun Laws For Young Adults

The Eubanks court based its ruling on the United States Supreme Court’s New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen decision, which says any gun law must match this nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.^[8] Under Bruen, states cannot use vague “public safety” claims to gut rights; they must show similar limits existed around the founding. The Florida court found no such tradition of banning 18‑ to 20‑year‑olds from carrying firearms in public.^[8] That failure meant the carry ban could not stand.

This is part of a larger national shift. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently struck down the federal ban on licensed dealers selling handguns to 18‑ to 20‑year‑olds, holding that the right to keep and bear arms includes the right to buy them.^[12] That court said “the people” in the Second Amendment covers young adults and that the federal government showed only “scant evidence” of founding‑era age bans like today’s.^[12] Together, these rulings show that age‑based limits on law‑abiding adults are on very thin ice after Bruen.

Why This Threatens Florida’s Under‑21 Long‑Gun Purchase Ban

Florida’s 2018 law still blocks 18‑ to 20‑year‑olds from buying rifles and shotguns, even though they may own guns given as gifts or by inheritance.^[11] The National Rifle Association has spent years challenging this purchase ban, arguing it “infringes the right of all 18‑to‑20‑year‑olds to purchase firearms for the exercise of their Second Amendment rights.”^[6] A federal district judge first upheld the law but admitted the case fell “squarely in the middle of a constitutional no man’s land,” showing how unsettled the question was even then.^[6]

The full United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit later upheld the purchase ban in National Rifle Association v. Bondi, claiming it fit within a historical pattern of regulating so‑called minors’ gun rights and stressing that young adults could still obtain firearms through other means.^[3] But that ruling now sits in clear tension with decisions like Eubanks and the Fifth Circuit’s Reese opinion, both of which say 18‑ to 20‑year‑olds fall squarely within “the people” protected by the Second Amendment and that blanket age bans lack historical support.^[8]^[12] This growing split makes it harder to defend Florida’s purchase ban going forward.

Florida’s Own Attorney General Turned Against The Ban

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier took the rare step of refusing to defend the 2018 long‑gun purchase law at the United States Supreme Court.^[2] His office filed a brief urging the Court to take the National Rifle Association’s appeal and strike down the statute as unconstitutional, agreeing that 18‑ to 20‑year‑old adults have a Second Amendment right to buy firearms.^[2] That move signaled a major shift inside Florida’s own government away from the panic‑driven politics that followed Parkland.^[6]

Gun rights advocates say the real issue is simple: if someone is old enough to vote, sign contracts, marry, and wear the uniform of the United States, they are old enough to exercise the full rights of “the people,” including buying and carrying firearms.^[12] Courts like the Eubanks panel are finally catching up to that common‑sense view. By knocking out the carry ban for young adults and putting age‑based schemes under the Bruen microscope, they are warning lawmakers in every state that feel‑good gun controls cannot override the Constitution forever.