The National Rifle Association (NRA) filed an appeal on Wednesday after a judge upheld a Florida law that stopped people younger than 21 from purchasing guns, according to a media release.
The NRA is trying to “protect the constitutionally guaranteed rights of all law-abiding adults,” said Marion Hammer, the NRA’s Florida lobbyist, and former president.
The case is titled NRA v. Swearingen.
One of the measures in Scott’s bill stopped anyone under 21 from buying a firearm but he said there are “exceptions for active duty and reserve military and spouses, National Guard members and law enforcement.”
The NRA filed a lawsuit in March 2018, asking a federal judge to stop Scott’s law from going into effect, and criticized the former governor for punishing “law-abiding gun owners for the criminal acts of a deranged individual.”
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker upheld the law last week by saying it followed legal precedent. He also said the case fell “squarely in the middle of a constitutional no man’s land.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker explained that “for better or worse,” he was bound by the Eleventh Circuit’s Second Amendment precedent and had to rule the way that he did.
“There is no question that 18-20-year-olds are adults in the eyes of the law and the Constitution. To deny those younger adults their rights because of the actions of criminals is nothing less than political discrimination and it is inconsistent with the Heller decision by the US Supreme Court. The district judge agreed this was unfair but ruled that his hands were tied by Eleventh Circuit precedent, ” said the NRA in a statement.
Gov. Ron DeSantis in May signed a bill that banned local governments from imposing gun restrictions. The law allows lawsuits for “unwritten” policies, and forces local governments to pay damages and attorney fees even if they alter their policies after the cases are filed.
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