The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed an opening brief with the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging a lower court’s decision to limit the geographic and chronological scope of a major firearms ruling. The gun rights organizations argue that the current restrictions allow the federal government to continue enforcing an unconstitutional law against the majority of their members.
The legal dispute stems from a case now known as FPC v. ATF (formerly Reese v. ATF), which challenges the federal law prohibiting adults between the ages of 18 and 20 from purchasing firearms. Last year, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit held that the age-based ban violates the Second Amendment and sent the case back to the district court to enter a formal judgment.
However, the resulting judgment entered by the district court significantly narrowed who is protected by the ruling. The court’s injunction only blocks enforcement of the law for SAF and partner organization members who reside within the geographic boundaries of the Fifth Circuit—Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana—and who were already members when the judgment was finalized on January 27, 2026.
The plaintiffs argue that these limitations are not supported by law, stating in their brief that courts are required to provide complete remedies to injured parties.
“This Court should reverse and remand with instructions to enter a judgment that provides injunctive relief that covers all of the Plaintiff Organization’s 18-to-20-year-old members,” the brief states. “While the district court appropriately granted injunctive relief in this case, it erred in defining the scope of that relief. The general principle of injunctive relief, reaffirmed many times by this Court and the Supreme Court, is that a district court should endeavor where possible to afford an injured party complete relief for their injuries.”
SAF is joined in the lawsuit by the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Louisiana Shooting Association. Leadership from the organizations expressed frustration with the federal government’s continued enforcement of the law outside of the restricted boundaries.
“What the government has said outright here is ‘we acknowledge that the Fifth Circuit has held the law to be unconstitutional, but we want to still enforce it against almost everyone,’” said SAF Executive Director Adam Kraut. “The government has done everything possible to keep disenfranchising thousands of adults through ridiculous demands on the plaintiff organizations, all to no avail. We filed the brief today outlining why the limited scope of the judgment is legally and constitutionally improper. We are optimistic the Fifth Circuit will fix this unconstitutional overreach by granting the full scope of relief SAF has fought for and won on behalf of its members.”
The battle over the federal purchase restrictions for young adults has been active for more than five years. SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb emphasized that the core constitutional question has already been decided in their favor, noting that the government chose not to appeal the initial Fifth Circuit ruling.
“We have been fighting this absurd handgun purchase ban on adults who are 18-20 years old for more than half a decade now,” Gottlieb said. “There is no doubt adults in this age range are part of ‘the People,’ and it’s high time the government stopped fighting the inevitable. We have already secured a favorable ruling in the case that the government didn’t even appeal. The scope of that ruling needs to be fixed to provide the relief the Fifth Circuit intended that all SAF members be granted.”
The outcome of the brief could have broader implications for how federal injunctions are applied across different states. Parallel to this case, SAF is also supporting a sister lawsuit, West Virginia Citizens Defense League v. ATF, which challenges the same federal purchase ban and is currently pending a petition for certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court.
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