U.S. appeals court issues narrow win for gun advocates in Pa. case

A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that adults between ages 18 and 20 in Pennsylvania may openly carry guns – but only during a state of emergency.

The narrowly tailored 2-1 decision – prompted by a lawsuit filed by a group of plaintiffs that included a Verona woman — set aside the broader issue of whether young adults in that age range could carry guns outside the home at all times.

“We understand that a reasonable debate can be had over allowing young adults to be armed, but the issue before us is a narrow one,” wrote Judge Kent A. Jordan for the conservative majority.

He was joined in the opinion by Third Circuit Judge D. Brooks Smith. Democratic appointee Judge Luis F. Restrepo dissented.

Gun-rights groups praised the ruling.

“We’re gratified with the decision, and we love the opinion,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, one of the plaintiffs.

A spokesman for the state attorney general’s office, which represented the Pennsylvania State Police in the case, said it was disappointed in the ruling and considering its options.

The opinion by the Third Circuit panel resulted from a lawsuit filed in Pittsburgh in 2020 by Verona’s Madison M. Lara, Logan Miller of Boyertown in Berks County and Sophia Knepley of Denver in Lancaster County. They were joined in the suit by the Firearms Policy Coalition in California and Gottlieb’s group, based in Washington state.

They challenged Pennsylvania laws that barred young adults from carrying guns outside during a state of emergency.

Pennsylvania was under a state of emergency for nearly three years due to the covid-19 pandemic, the opioid crisis and Hurricane Ida.

The lawsuit alleged that statutes requiring a person to be 21 to obtain a license to carry a firearm were unconstitutional under the Second and Fourteenth amendments.

Plaintiffs argued that they should be permitted to carry guns outside their homes, including for self-defense, citing three separate Pennsylvania statutes.

The complaint, which named only then-Pennsylvania State Police Commissioner Robert Evanchick as a defendant, argued that if young adults could join the military and bear arms, then they should be permitted to carry a gun in public.

The plaintiffs were hoping for a broad decision that would declare it legal for people aged 18 to 20 to carry guns, but the Third Circuit opted for a more limited ruling.

Despite that, Gottlieb said that the rest of the opinion makes clear that the court believes the Second Amendment applies to everyone including people aged 18 to 20.

“You can’t take one part out without the other,” Gottlieb said.

He said that his organization has won similar cases in Minnesota, California and Texas. His hope is to get split decisions among different appeals courts, which could force the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the issue.

“Ultimately, what we’d like is for the Supreme Court to decide it and have it be the law of the land,” Gottlieb said. “Pennsylvania would help us out on this one by appealing.”

In April 2021, U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV dismissed the complaint, writing that the plaintiffs were not precluded from bearing arms entirely — but only when on public streets. Further, he said his opinion was consistent with other federal courts that have upheld age-based restrictions.

But, according to the Third Circuit opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in a case in 2022 changed the required analysis.

In arguing their position to the appellate court, the state police alleged that the phrase “the people” in the Second Amendment does not provide protection for adults aged 18 to 20.

But the Third Circuit panel disagreed, calling that position untenable. The majority noted that 18 to 20 -year-olds have various constitutional rights.

“The words ‘the people’ in the Second Amendment preemptively encompass all adult Americans, including 18-to-20-year-olds, and we are aware of no founding-era law that supports disarming people in that age group,” they wrote.

The panel noted that the Second Militia Act, passed by Congress in 1792, called for males ages 18 to 45 to be armed.

“That young adults had to serve in the militia indicates that founding-era lawmakers believed those youth could, and indeed should, keep and bear arms,” the appellate court wrote.