DALLAS — A federal judge has struck down one of the few remaining gun restrictions in Texas, finding that a law barring adults under 21 from carrying a handgun was unconstitutional.
U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman in Fort Worth ruled Thursday that the state law barring most 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying a handgun outside the home violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms and cannot be enforced. He suspended the sentence without effect for 30 days.
The decision came in a case brought last year by a gun rights group and a man and woman who argued they should be able to carry guns for protection despite being under 21. They sued five months after Texas lifted one of its last major gun restrictions. , allowing people over the age of 21 to carry handguns without a license, background check or training.
Pittman, an appointee of President Donald Trump, spoke out in support of the couple and the Firearms Policy Coalition Inc. based on “the text of the Second Amendment, as informed by the history and tradition of the founding era.”
The decision follows a major expansion of gun rights by the US Supreme Court. After a series of mass shootings, the high court ruled in June that Americans have the right to carry firearms in public for self-defense.
Cody Wisniewski, an attorney with the Coalition for Firearms Policy, said Pittman’s decision “is a significant victory for the rights of young adults in Texas and demonstrates to the rest of the nation that similar bans do not can withstand constitutional challenges based on history.”
A spokeswoman for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican whose office defended the law in court, did not immediately respond to questions, including whether the state will appeal.
The ruling comes amid renewed calls in Texas for stricter gun laws after the May massacre at Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, where an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and two teachers with an assault-style rifle Legally purchased AR-15.
Although Texas had maintained age restrictions on the sale of handguns, the age limit for purchasing long rifles in the state is 18. Many Uvalde families have joined Democrats and gun control advocates in asking lawmakers to raise the age to buy rifles to 21.
Uvalde parents are also expected to call for stricter gun laws at a rally Saturday at the Texas Capitol. Neither Republican Gov. Greg Abbott nor the overwhelming GOP majority in the state Legislature has voiced support for new gun measures since Uvalde.
Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa on Friday denounced the new court ruling and urged Abbott to call a special legislative session to pass “significant and widely supported gun safety legislation.”
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Associated Press reporter Paul J. Weber in Austin contributed to this report.