Fourth Circuit Strikes Down Under 21 Restrictions on Handguns

Andrew Donaldson

Born and raised in West Virginia, Andrew has since lived and traveled around the world several times over. Though frequently writing about politics out of a sense of duty and love of country, most of the time he would prefer discussions on history, culture, occasionally nerding on aviation, and his amateur foodie tendencies. He can usually be found misspelling/misusing words on Twitter @four4thefire and his food writing website Yonder and Home. Andrew is the host of Heard Tell podcast.

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9 Responses

  1. Oscar Gordon says:

    And yet alcohol restrictions stand?

    I think the court is correct in that the rights vest at 18, but they still pick and choose which rights vest.

    I’m betting this hits SCOTUS in the near future.Report

    • Jaybird in reply to Oscar Gordon says:

      I think that it would hinge on the specific wording of the 21st. The 21st was *NOT* “the 18th Amendment is hereby repealed”. It left a *LOT* of wiggle room in there and I want to say that each state’s drinking age is 21 because each state did that… I seem to recall when Louisiana? I want to say? Alabama? I don’t recall… had a drinking age of 19 and Liddy Dole withheld Federal Highway Funds on that basis.

      Let’s check the google…

      I slaughtered that.

      It was South Dakota and challenges to that sort of thing went all the way to the Supreme Court.

      South Dakota v. Dole, 483 U.S. 203 (1987), was a case in which the United States Supreme Court considered the limitations that the Constitution places on the authority of the United States Congress when Congress uses its authority to influence the individual states in areas of authority normally reserved to the states. The Court upheld the constitutionality of a federal statute that withheld federal funds from states whose legal drinking age did not conform to federal policy.

      Maybe it oughta be overturned with our new understanding of the government in the current year.

      (But I think that about a *LOT* of cases.)Report

  2. If they’re old enough to shoot foreigners, they’re old enough to shoot Americans.Report