Federal Appeals Court Upholds Florida Law Prohibiting Certain Gun Purchases

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2018 Florida law banning individuals between the ages of 18 and 20 from purchasing rifles and other long guns.

In an 8-4 decision, the appeals court ruled the law is “consistent with our historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Eleventh Circuit Upholds Florida Under-21 Gun Sales Ban

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“The Florida law that prohibits minors from purchasing firearms does not violate the Second and Fourteenth Amendments because it is consistent with our historical tradition of firearm regulation,” Chief Judge William Pryor wrote for the majority in NRA v. Bondi, according to The Reload.

“From the Founding to the late-nineteenth century, our law limited the purchase of firearms by minors in different ways. The Florida law also limits the purchase of firearms by minors. And it does so for the same reason: to stop immature and impulsive individuals, like Nikolas Cruz, from harming themselves and others with deadly weapons. Those similarities are sufficient to confirm the constitutionality of the Florida law,” the ruling continued.

LEGAL ALERT: The en banc Eleventh Circuit has upheld Florida’s under-21 gun ban. https://t.co/mOnIPqeVXP pic.twitter.com/M4SSEhgKEh

— Firearms Policy Coalition (@gunpolicy) March 14, 2025

NBC 6 South Florida reports:

The 8-4 ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came after seven years of legal wrangling in the National Rifle Association’s challenge to a 2018 law passed after a mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that killed 17 students and faculty members.

Nikolas Cruz, who was 19 at the time, used a semiautomatic rifle to gun down the victims at his former school. The NRA filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the gun-age restriction shortly after the law passed.

Friday’s ruling by the full Atlanta-based appeals court upheld a three-judge panel’s decision and outlined the history of the nation’s gun laws, from its founding to recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions setting guidelines for determining how to apply the Second Amendment. While the law barred people under 21 from buying rifles and long guns, they still can receive them, for example, as gifts from family members.

“From this history emerges a straightforward conclusion: the Florida law is consistent with our regulatory tradition in why and how it burdens the right of minors to keep and bear arms,” Chief Judge William Pryor wrote. “Because minors have yet to reach the age of reason, the Florida law prohibits them from purchasing firearms, yet it allows them to receive firearms from their parents or another responsible adult.”

A Florida law banning gun sales to people under 21 is constitutional, a divided Eleventh Circuit said Friday. https://t.co/xxMRd3zkhD

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Florida lawmakers are pushing to lower the state’s gun-buying age from 21 to 18, reigniting a debate over gun rights and public safety years after the law was enacted in response to the Parkland school shooting.

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From The Reload:

The ruling deals another blow to gun-rights advocates hoping to peel back some of the restrictions Florida lawmakers imposed after the Parkland shooting and other age-based restrictions around the country. While they have made progress in loosening some of Florida’s gun laws in recent years, including its gun-carry regime, advocates have seen little progress in undoing the post-Parkland laws. Similarly, advocates have secured a series of wins against age restrictions across the country but have had no success in court against Florida’s law.

Just a month after a 19-year-old shooter murdered 17 people and injured 17 more at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the state legislature banned the sale of firearms to anyone under 21 years old. The NRA quickly filed suit, but a district court judge sided with Florida. In March 2023, a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit again ruled in favor of Florida’s age restrictions.

“Because Florida’s Act is at least as modest as the firearm prohibitions on 18-to-20-year-olds in the Reconstruction Era and enacted for the same reason as those laws, it is ‘relevantly similar’ to those Reconstruction Era laws,” Judge Robin Rosenbaum, an Obama appointee, wrote for the majority. “And as a result, it does not violate the Second Amendment.”

The NRA then asked the Eleventh Circuit for an en banc review of the case, which came to the same conclusion on Monday. However, the en banc panel focused more squarely on the legal limitations those under 21 faced during the Founding Era.

Read the full ruling HERE.