Should persons 18 to 20 years of age be allowed to possess handguns? Under federal law, and the laws of the large majority of states, the answer is “yes.” The states with a minimum age of 21 for handgun possession are Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York. The non-state of D.C. has the same limit, and New Mexico has age 19. There are pro/con constitutional and policy arguments about restrictions for 18-to-20-year-olds. Yet if such limits are going to be imposed, they ought to be debated by legislatures, with the ordinary opportunity for public comment. But recently, states such as Colorado and Washington have accidentally banned 18-to-20-year-olds from handguns without any expressed intent by anyone to do so. The ban is a consequence of the odd system of “universal background checks” promoted by Michael Bloomberg’s “Everytown” gun control lobby.
Read the complete article: The Volokh Conspiracy
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