Everytown for Gun Safety and Kramer Levin Amicus Brief Helps Secure Eleventh Circuit Ruling That Florida’s Age-Based Restrictions on the Purchase of Firearms Are Constitutional

On March 9, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in National Rifle Association, et al. v. Commissioner, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, No. 21-12314, affirmed the Northern District of Florida’s order granting summary judgment to dismiss plaintiffs’ claims, determining that Florida’s law restricting the purchase of firearms for persons under the age of 21 is constitutional.

Plaintiffs-appellants, the National Rifle Association and an individual, challenged the constitutionality of Florida Statutes § 790.065(13), also known as the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act. That statute precludes persons under the age of 21 from purchasing firearms. It was enacted following a 2018 mass shooting by a 19-year-old gunman who killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Plaintiffs argued that the prohibition on firearm purchases by persons under 21 years of age violated the Second and Fourteenth Amendments. The district court granted summary judgment and dismissed plaintiffs’ claims, determining that the statute was constitutional. Plaintiffs appealed.

Kramer Levin filed amicus briefs on behalf of Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund in both the district court and the Eleventh Circuit. The briefs argued that the United States has a longstanding tradition of age-based restrictions on the purchase of firearms — extending back over 150 years — and therefore Florida’s restriction under Section 790.065(13) is consistent with the Second and Fourteenth Amendments.

The Eleventh Circuit agreed. It held that Section 790.065(13) is consistent with the nation’s longstanding historical tradition of age-based firearms restrictions. The court examined twenty age-based firearms restrictions enacted from the early 1800s through the late 1890s. The fact that there was “apparently only a single challenge to these twenty statutes’ constitutionality until well into the twentieth century” indicates widespread acceptance that the regulations enhanced public safety at the time the Fourteenth Amendment was ratified. The Court determined that Section 790.065(13) is analogous to its predecessors from more than 150 years ago because it also aims to improve public safety and is consistent with that longstanding history and the Second Amendment.

The Kramer Levin team included Litigation partner Darren LaVerne, special counsel Karen Steinberg Kennedy, associates Daniel M. Ketani and Daniela Manzi, and paralegal Denise Reid.

The Eleventh Circuit’s decision is available here.