SCOTUS Lets Stand a 3rd Circuit Ruling Allowing Emergency Concealed Carry for 18-20 Year-Olds

In Tuesday’s orders of cert grants and denials, SCOTUS denied cert on a Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that found Pennsylvania’s ban on emergency concealed carry for 18-20-year-olds unconstitutional.

The case is Lara v. Evanchick, another Second Amendment Foundation case. 

The Duke Center for Firearms Law explained the basics of the case and the 3rd Circuit ruling:

On January 18, [2024,] a panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals invalidated on Second Amendment grounds a set of Pennsylvania statutes that operated to bar 18-20-year-olds from carrying firearms in public during declared states of emergency.  The ruling in Lara v. Commissioner is one of a growing number of post-Bruen decisions addressing firearm restrictions on that specific age group.  Lara brings into sharp focus doctrinal and procedural questions surrounding these age-restriction cases, especially as the Supreme Court is poised to decide related questions of who may be restricted from possessing firearms in Rahimi.

The Third Circuit was asked to rehear the case and the Second Amendment Foundation celebrated when the Third Circuit denied the request:

The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a petition for a rehearing in the Second Amendment Foundation’s victory in a case challenging Pennsylvania statutes that prohibit law-abiding young adults from carrying firearms for self-defense and prevents them from acquiring a state license to carry (LTCF) because of their age.

The case was pushed up to SCOTUS via a cert petition and that petition was denied Tuesday.

Pennsylvania Gun Rights noted that SCOTUS chose not to hear the challenge to the 3rd Circuit decision, resulting in a “major win for gun owners in PA.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.