Second Amendment supporters continue to battle laws that discriminate against young adults exercising their rights, and they are happy to report a recent victory in Florida. The encouraging decision came down on Friday.
Broward County Circuit Judge Frank Ledee determined that Florida’s ban on 18-20-year-olds carrying concealed weapons violated the Constitution as pertaining to a specific defendant.
Constitutional rights are guaranteed to all law-abiding citizens
Ledee made it clear that fundamental freedoms cannot be denied to law-abiding adults solely because of their age.
The judge wrote, “Florida’s prohibition on the concealed carry of firearms strips a class of legal adults of their ability to exercise the very right the Constitution guarantees.”
Ledee added that the state’s “overbroad restriction on the concealed carry of firearms by 18-20-year-olds violates the Second Amendment.”
2A supporters want this precedent to be followed in other similar cases
The monumental ruling centered on a routine traffic encounter in Plantation during which a 19-year-old motorist, identified as Joel Walkes III, was stranded beside a major thoroughfare. The officer found a concealed weapon, and the driver was arrested.
Walkes was charged with carrying a concealed firearm in violation of Florida law, an infraction punishable by up to five years in prison.
The Sunshine State prohibited concealed carry by young adults after the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
Broward Public Defender Gordon Weekes noted the ruling’s limited scope but said it will likely influence similar decisions across Florida. “It was a big moment when the judge made his ruling and dismissed the case, and it’s gonna cause ripples across the state for sure.”
The desire among Second Amendment advocates is that this precedent will be followed if or when the issue reaches a higher court. Pressure is obviously increasing to correct these legal miscues that deny basic rights to the people.
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