Florida court says 18-year-olds have same gun rights as other adults

A Florida appeals court ruled Wednesday that the state’s ban on concealed carry by adults ages 18 to 20 violates the Second Amendment, finding that young adults are entitled to the same constitutional protections as law-abiding adults over the age of 20.

In a sweeping opinion, the court said 18-year-olds can serve in the military and defend the nation but face restrictions on their ability to exercise the same self-defense rights available to older adults.

“Eighteen- to 20-year-olds can defend the country without restriction but can only utilize their Second Amendment right to self-defense with severe restrictions,” Judge Spencer D. Levine wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel of Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeals.

“Restricting 18- to 20-year-olds — members of the same ‘political community’ as other law-abiding adults — from rights to self-defense would make the Second Amendment a ‘second-class’ right,” Levine wrote.

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The ruling comes after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier declined to defend the law earlier this year.

“In another win for the unalienable rights of Floridians, the 4th DCA agreed with our position that Florida’s law banning adults under 21 from conceal carrying a firearm is unconstitutional,” Uthmeier wrote on X.

“We will not seek further review and will work with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to implement the court’s order,” he wrote.

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The case stemmed from the 2024 arrest of Jaylen Eubanks, who was 18 at the time. According to the opinion, officers responding to a report of a person displaying a handgun detained Eubanks and found an unholstered firearm on his waist. He was charged with carrying a concealed firearm and improper exhibition of a firearm.

Eubanks challenged the concealed-carry charge, arguing Florida’s age restriction violated the Second Amendment. The restriction was enacted following the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people were killed. A trial court rejected Eubanks’ argument, but the appellate court reversed.

Citing Supreme Court precedent including Heller, Bruen and Rahimi, the court said adults ages 18 to 20 are among “the people” protected by the Second Amendment and that Florida failed to identify a historical tradition supporting the restriction.

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The panel also pointed to founding-era militia laws requiring many 18-year-old men to serve while bearing arms.

“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 opinion states.

The court rejected arguments that concerns about firearm misuse among younger adults justified the restriction, saying Florida failed to identify a historical tradition supporting the law and that adults ages 18 to 20 could not be treated like categories historically subject to firearm restrictions, such as felons or the mentally ill.

“All those who reach the age of 18 are able, and encouraged, for example, to join the military to defend our country,” Levine wrote.

“Yet those very same law-abiding adults are burdened in their ability to exercise the same Second Amendment rights that other adults have.”

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The court reversed Eubanks’ concealed-carry conviction and remanded the case for further proceedings.