A gun violence prevention group is calling upon the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a legal challenge to Florida’s ban on individuals under 21 years of age purchasing long guns.
Brady, the gun safety group formerly known as the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court on Friday urging the justices to decline the opportunity to rule on the 2018 state law.
That provision was just one part of the wide-ranging Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act signed into law by then-Gov. Rick Scott just weeks after 17 people were slain in the mass shooting in Parkland on Valentine’s Day in 2018.
James Uthmeier, appointed to serve as the state’s attorney general by Gov. Ron DeSantis earlier this year, announced in March that he and the governor believe the law is unconstitutional, saying that if “the NRA decides to seek further review at SCOTUS, I am directing my office not to defend this law.”
The NRA filed its petition for certiorari in May. It calls for the Supreme Court justices to review the split among federal circuit courts over whether adults under 21 enjoy Second Amendment rights. The Third, Fifth, and Eighth Circuits have ruled that they do, while the Tenth and Eleventh circuits have upheld laws banning firearm purchases by adults under 21.
Jeffrey DeSousa, the acting solicitor general in the Florida Office of Legal Affairs, has so far filed two 30-day extensions in response to the NRA’s petition, with his response now due at the high court by Aug. 20.
The Brady group is criticizing Uthmeier for his refusal to defend the law.
“After the horrors at Stoneman Douglas in Parkland in 2018 and courageous advocacy by traumatized survivors, the Republican majorities in the Florida Legislature and Republican Governor Ron DeSantis collaborated on a commonsense age requirement for purchasing and receiving firearms,” said Brady Chief Legal Officer Douglas Letter, forgetting that it was actually Rick Scott who signed the law.
“Not only have similar age restrictions existed since our founding as a Nation, they are consistent with modern scientific knowledge regarding physical brain development and our constantly expanding knowledge and understanding of mature brain functioning,” Letter said in a statement.
“In refusing to do his job, Attorney General Uthmeier shamefully denies these facts and denies the success of the law in saving lives and decreasing the rates of gun deaths of the state’s minors. The Supreme Court should deny the NRA’s profit-driven request, and allow this bipartisan success to continue.”
The Florida House in March passed a bill (HB 759) that would lower the age for individuals in Florida to purchase shotguns and rifles from 21 to 18. It was the third straight year the chamber has done so, but both times the legislation failed to become law because it never moved in the Florida Senate.
Bob Jarvis, professor of constitutional law at Nova Southeastern University’s Shepard Broad College of Law, says he does expect the state to file a response in the NRA case, and that there’s a parallel to how a group of blue states reacted to the evolving issue of same-sex marriage a decade ago.
“In the Obergefell case some years ago (involving same-sex marriage bans), the attorneys general of California, Illinois, and Pennsylvania (among others) refused to defend their state’s same-sex marriage bans,” he said. “Instead, they filed an amicus brief supporting Obergefell. I would expect Florida to do the same thing here (i.e., not defend Florida’s law and file an amicus brief in support of the NRA).”
–Mitch Perry, Florida Phoenix
Thomas Hutson says
So what else is NEW? These MAGA wannabe upholders of law are a JOKE! BABY MUSSOLINI needs to give it up TACO, TACO ORANGE MAN is not going to give you a job and this JERK he appointed AG in Florida will be on the outside looking in next year! Hey maybe BLONDIE will find a spot for both of them, they are all ass kissers for TACO MAN!
Jay Tomm says
If you can vote, fight, & our own laws say your an adult at age 18, then you have the same rights as every other American. I will say the same for all things at 18. Not just firearms.
It all needs to be thrown out!
What Else Is New says
Oh, for heaven’s sake. No one needs a gun except law enforcement officers. Certainly not those January 6th thugs wearing masks and deporting people to countries with no ties, citizens or not, or living here for decades and following the laws. Some might opine the military needs weapons. Perhaps we could advocate for no wars. Think peace.
Skibum says
Jay Tomm, you may want to rethink your assertion that 18 year olds should have all the rights that every other adult has. 18 year olds are still immature in many ways, make a lot of very wrongheaded decisions, and are still too easily swayed to do stupid things that they look back on years later and think to themselves “what was I thinking?!”
Would you think it would be a good idea for 18 year olds to be allowed in any bar so they can drink themselves into a stupor every night, getting into a vehicle afterward to drive on our roads? There is a reason why 18 year olds are not allowed in bars!
Would you think it is a good idea to allow 18 year olds to run for president, when that is against the law? Some that age might be mature enough to make good decisions… we surely know it wouldn’t take much more than a mushroom to be wiser than the current occupier of the WH, but far too many teenagers lack the emotional maturity, stability and other necessary qualities at that age, and to have someone like that in arms reach of the nuclear codes would be frightening.
There is no damn reason why teenager need access to these weapons that were age restricted! And it is unfathomable to me that this state’s top law enforcement official would be yelling at “libs” with one side of his face saying they should follow the law, and then in almost the same breath with the opposite side of his face saying he is not going to follow state law. Can you not identify irony and incompetence when it slaps you in the face?
Sherry says
Thanks so much Skibum. . . as usual, you are most certainly right on! It’s simply amazing that so many cannot (choose not to) “think” beyond the end of their noses, or beyond what Fox tells them to say.