Back in Time

Bruen, Rahimi, and their history-focused perspective on the Second Amendment led to a firearms restriction being held unconstitutional because:

“[T]he text of the Second Amendment includes eighteen-to-twenty-year-old individuals among ‘the people’ whose right to keep and bear arms is protected. The federal government has presented scant evidence that eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds’ firearm rights during the founding-era were restricted in a similar manner to the contemporary federal handgun purchase ban, and its 19th century evidence ‘cannot provide much insight into the meaning of the Second Amendment when it contradicts earlier evidence.'”

Reese v. BATF, No. 23-30033-CV (Jan. 31, 2025) (citation omitted). (A demographer would note that the average lifespan in the 1790s was about 40 years, providing some perspective on the framers’ views about aging, although that number is likely skewed downward by the high infant mortality of the time.)