On October 24, 2025, a big ruling emerged from the Circuit Court docket of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County, Florida, within the case of State of Florida v. Joel Walkes. Decide Frank Ledee granted defendant Joel Walkes’ movement to declare Florida Statute §790.01 unconstitutional as utilized to people aged 18-20, dismissing the cost of carrying a hid firearm.
Walkes, a 19-year-old arrested on March 21, 2025, was charged with a third-degree felony for carrying a hid firearm in violation of Florida state legislation, which prohibits hid carry for these below 21. The incident occurred when officers, responding to a disabled car, seen a bulge in Walkes’s waistband, resulting in the invention of a loaded semi-automatic pistol. His protection argued that the statute infringed on his Second Modification rights, a declare the court docket upheld after rigorous scrutiny.
The court docket’s choice hinged on the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s Bruen ruling, which mandates that firearm legal guidelines be according to the plain textual content of the Second Modification and the nation’s historic custom of firearms rules. The Florida legislation, amended in 2023 to permit permitless hid carry for these 21 and older, confronted scrutiny for its blanket prohibition on 18-20-year-olds. The protection contended that this age group, legally acknowledged as adults able to voting, marrying, serving within the army, and being tried as adults, shouldn’t be denied a core constitutional proper. They cited the Militia Act of 1792, which required 18-year-olds to bear arms, as proof of historic acceptance.
The state countered by pointing to a late Nineteenth-century custom of proscribing firearm gross sales to these below 21, a apply upheld in NRA v. Bondi. Nonetheless, the court docket discovered this argument inadequate below Bruen’s historic check. The state failed to supply a Founding-era legislation broadly prohibiting hid carry by 18-20-year-olds or a comparable justification for the ban. As a substitute, it highlighted legal guidelines proscribing purchases and different actions (e.g., alcohol and tobacco) based mostly on maturity, which the court docket deemed irrelevant to the suitable to bear arms.
“The state has didn’t determine Founding-era legislation that broadly prohibited the hid carry of firearms by eighteen-to-twenty yr olds,” Ledee wrote. “The state additionally didn’t cite to any historic regulation imposing a burden or justification similar to Florida’s hid carry ban as utilized to eighteen-to-twenty yr olds.”
Key to the ruling was the excellence between proudly owning, buying, and carrying firearms. Whereas federal and Florida legislation prohibit gross sales to these below 21, 18-20-year-olds can legally possess firearms acquired by way of items or inheritance. The court docket famous the inconsistency: these people can brazenly carry gifted firearms however not conceal them, a restriction deemed incompatible with Second Modification protections. The current McDaniels v. State choice, which struck down Florida’s open carry ban, additional underscored this inconsistency.
Making use of Bruen’s Textual content, Historical past, and Custom Take a look at, the court docket discovered that hid carry falls inside the Second Modification’s scope, as affirmed by Heller and McDonald. The state’s failure to determine a historic analogue justifying the ban on 18-20-year-olds led to the conclusion that the Florida legislation violates their rights. The court docket rejected the state’s argument that 21 is the “age of cause,” emphasizing that constitutional rights can’t rely upon parental largesse or inheritance.
This ruling doesn’t eradicate all firearm restrictions however challenges age-based categorical bans that lack historic precedent. It aligns with a rising judicial pattern of reassessing state legal guidelines below the Bruen normal, probably influencing future laws. The choice leaves the framework of firearm rules to legislative debate, suggesting that Florida might have to revisit its method to stability public security and constitutional rights.
The case raises broader questions concerning the rights of younger adults and the evolving interpretation of the Second Modification. Because the U.S. Supreme Court docket has indirectly addressed this concern, the ruling might face appeals, probably reaching larger courts. For now, it stands as a landmark victory for Walkes and a name to align firearm legal guidelines with historic traditions, guaranteeing that authorized adults will not be unduly stripped of their constitutional protections.
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About John Crump
Mr. Crump is an NRA teacher and a constitutional activist. John has written about firearms, interviewed individuals from all walks of life, and on the Structure. John lives in Northern Virginia along with his spouse and sons, observe him on X at @crumpyss, or at www.crumpy.com.
