OLR Report 2013-R-0097 summarizes NRA v BATFE (700 F.3d 185), a case where the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas upheld a federal law that prohibits federally licensed firearm dealers (FFLs) from selling handguns to people under age 21. Plaintiffs challenged the law's constitutionally on grounds that it violated their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms and Fifth Amendment right to equal protection under the Due Process Clause.
The three-judge panel adopted a flexible two-step inquiry established by other circuits analyzing firearm regulations in the wake of the U. S. Supreme Court holdings in District of Columbia v. Heller (554 U.S. 570 (2008)) and McDonald v. Chicago (130 S. Ct. 3020 (2010)). The two-step inquiry involves (1) first determining whether a challenged law impinges upon a protected Second Amendment right and (2) next determining the appropriate level of judicial scrutiny to apply to the analysis. The court, after surveying the history and tradition of gun sale regulations, concluded that the federal ban on handgun sales to people under age 21 did not touch on protected Second Amendment activity. It rejected the National Rifle Association's (NRA) request to apply strict scrutiny in considering the ban. Applying the less exacting intermediate scrutiny standard, it held that curbing crime by those under age 21 constitutes an important government objective and the ban adequately served that end.
The court also rejected the NRA's equal protection argument, noting that the government may discriminate on the basis of age without offending the constitutional guarantee of equal protection if such discrimination is rationally related to a legitimate state interest.
For more information, read the full report.
