Texas judge allows anyone above 18 to carry gun

Anyone above the age of 18 can carry a gun in Texas, a federal judge ruled Thursday, throwing out the state’s ban on people below 20 years from being armed.

The Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun-owners’ rights group, had in 2021 challenged the Texas law that banned young adults not in active military service from carrying handguns in public.

The ban went against the US Constitution’s Second Amendment, which says that states can organize militias and that “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed,” the group said.

‘History only’
Judge Mark Pittman of Fort Worth’s District Court insisted there was no historic tradition that stops young adults from being armed in public while repeatedly citing a recent Supreme Court ruling, which for the first time in June ruled that the Second Amendment guaranteed the right to every individual to carry weapons for self-defense.

The country’s highest court also ordered federal judges to apply a “history only” test when considering challenges to state bans.

“The undisputed historical evidence establishes that 18-to-20-year-olds were understood to be part of the militia in the Founding Era,” Pittman wrote in his order.

Texas has 30 days to file an appeal against the ruling.