On Friday, Broward Circuit Judge Frank Ledee ruled that Florida’s prohibition against 18–20-year-olds carrying firearms concealed for self-defense is unconstitutional.
Local 10 News quoted from Ledee’s opinion, wherein he 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.”
He also noted, “Florida’s overbroad restriction on the concealed carry of firearms by 18–20-year-olds violates the Second Amendment.”
The case centered on a 19-year-old driver, Joel Walkes III, who was arrested and charged when police discovered a handgun in his waistband during a traffic stop. (Walkes reportedly admitted that he had been carrying the gun.)
The Union-Bulletin reported that Ledee agreed with Walkes’ “defense argument that 18–year-olds are treated as adults in multiple legal settings, including the ability to vote, marry and serve in the armed forces.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at [email protected].
Read the full article here