A federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday that a Colorado law prohibiting gun sales to adults under 21 can take effect, overturning a previous injunction. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the lower court’s decision and sent the case back to the district court for further review, according to a report by The Denver Post.
The decision follows a 2023 lawsuit filed against Colorado Governor Jared Polis by two individuals under the age of 21 and the organization Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, who argued that the law violated the Second Amendment. The legislation raised the minimum age for purchasing a firearm in Colorado from 18 to 21 and criminalized the sale or purchase of guns by individuals under 21, with exceptions only for active-duty military members and police officers.
Initially, a district court judge issued an injunction in August 2023 to prevent the law from taking effect. However, in a 90-page opinion, the appeals court determined that the case did not meet the requirements for an injunction, stating the district court “abused its discretion” by granting one.
“The best reading is that (the law) is presumptively lawful because the aged-based condition or qualification on the conduct it proscribes falls outside the scope of the plain text of the Second Amendment,” the judges wrote in their opinion.
In response to the ruling, Rocky Mountain Gun Owners issued a statement accusing the court of “(recharacterizing) this law into a mere commercial regulation instead of a constitutional right infringement.”
“This law very clearly violates both the Second Amendment and the Supreme Court’s precedents, and we look forward to ultimately striking it off the books,” the organization said in its statement.
