Twisting law and precedents into logical pretzels is nothing new. Still, U.S. District Judge Jill A. Otake elevated that practice into an art form with her decision on Hawaii’s young adult gun and ammunition ban last week.
Roache v. Lopez featured the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), two Aloha State gun dealers, and an individual as plaintiffs against the prohibition against adults under 21 possessing firearms and ammo.
Somehow, the Founding Era “Infancy Doctrine” concerning minors entering contracts justified Hawaii’s modern-day eradication of Second Amendment rights for young adults.
Apparently ‘the people’ may still be denied the right to keep and bear arms
Atoke acknowledged arguments affirming young adults as part of “the people,” but quickly shifted her ruling and tried to explain her reasoning.
“Here, there is little dispute that the state’s age-limit restrictions on firearm acquisition for 18-to 20-year-olds fall within the plain text of the Second Amendment,” she wrote. “The Court nonetheless addresses that question briefly before turning to the weightier issues of Bruen’s second step. Ultimately, the Court concludes that the State’s restriction is largely consistent with the principles that underlie the country’s regulatory tradition, as evidenced by Founding Era common law and 19th-century statutory prohibitions that were enacted in response to societal changes and technological advances in firearms.”
Founding Era contract law was enough to rule against plaintiffs
Judge Atoke’s historical precedent for denying grown adults gun rights was largely based on an 1822 case that lumped handguns in with liquor, whips, and fiddles.
Thus, contract law sufficed for rejecting 2A rights for a group acknowledged as part of “the people.”
Atoke rejected the plaintiff’s position that young adults are full-fledged citizens entitled to equal protection under the law. Instead, she agreed with Hawaii’s lawyers that the fact that states restrict purchases of alcohol and tobacco by this age group was enough to reject their Second Amendment rights.
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