BELLEVUE, Wash. — The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have their opening appellate brief with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in PWGG v. Bonta (formerly Jones v. Bonta), SAF’s challenge to California’s firearm purchase ban for adults under 21 years old.
Backgrounder: Second Amendment Foundation Challenges California’s Under-21 Firearm Ban
The case of PWGG v. Bonta—formerly known as Jones v. Bonta—is a major legal challenge led by the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), and others against California’s law banning most adults under the age of 21 from purchasing firearms.
Filed originally in 2019, the lawsuit targets California Penal Code § 27510, which prohibits licensed gun dealers from selling or transferring any firearm to individuals aged 18–20, except in narrow circumstances (e.g., those with hunting licenses, active law enforcement, or military service). Plaintiffs argue this age-based restriction violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments by denying a class of law-abiding adult citizens their right to keep and bear arms.
The plaintiffs include two young adults, several California gun stores, and advocacy organizations. They claim the law harms public safety, infringes on fundamental rights, and prevents otherwise eligible adults from buying, renting, or handling firearms—even for self-defense. Businesses like Poway Weapons & Gear and North County Shooting Center say the law has caused them financial harm by barring sales and training to these adults.
Supporters of the lawsuit argue that if 18-year-olds are old enough to vote, serve in the military, and be considered legal adults, they should not be stripped of core constitutional rights based on age alone. SAF and its partners have now filed their opening appellate brief in the Ninth Circuit, pressing the court to recognize that gun rights are not “second-class rights.”
A decision in this case could have wide-reaching implications for age-based gun restrictions nationwide.
Adults under the age of 21 in California are effectively banned from purchasing firearms, including semiautomatic centerfire rifles of any type.
Originally filed in 2019, the lawsuit presents a simple yet profound question: May a peaceable citizen of this nation, legally dependent on no one but himself or herself for care and protection, nevertheless be deprived of the right to keep and bear arms on account of age? The protections codified by the Second Amendment say no.
“California lawmakers believe they can vote away the fundamental rights of a subset of the adult population,” said SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “But fortunately for all Americans, the rights codified in our Constitution are memorialized there to prevent precisely that sort of behavior. Imagine if you will, extending that capability to other fundamental rights. Perhaps the California legislature would prefer 19-year-olds not have free speech, or the right to be free from unreasonable search or seizure. Gun rights are not second-class rights, and their deprivation is no less egregious.”
SAF is joined in the case by the Firearms Policy Coalition and California Gun Rights Coalition, along with two licensed firearms dealers – Poway Weapons and Gear and North County Shooting Center.
As noted in the brief, “The Second Amendment’s plain text extends to cover the right of ‘the people to keep and bear arms.’ ‘The people’ encompasses, as the Supreme Court has already held, all Americans.”
“The purchase restrictions on 18-20-year-olds in California is nothing more than the normal fearmongering we expect out of the state,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The discriminatory practice of banning a certain age of adult from acquiring firearms in California is an affront to the peaceable citizens who wish to exercise their full Second Amendment rights. This case has dragged on long enough and it is past time for this issue to be resolved to allow adults of all ages in California to purchase firearms.”
For more information visit SAF.org.
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Second Amendment Foundation
The Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group dedicated to safeguarding and promoting the fundamental rights of individuals enshrined in the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution. SAF engages in aggressive legal action to ensure the principles of armed self-defense, personal liberty, and the ownership of arms are defended, secured, and restored. Through public education initiatives, SAF teaches the importance of the Second Amendment to promote a society that values and exercises the right to keep and bear arms.
Look, it’s truly this simple. Either an 18yo is an adult, garnering all of the attributes that go along with it, or they’re not. None of this “you’re an adult, but you can’t do this” type of thing. If they’re NOT, then we need to repeal the 26th amendment & raise the “age of adult” to 21yo. That way everything evens out.
push for a ban on 18 to 20 year olds voting and a tax on hate speech 200 $ stamp need one for each slur , they would scream its my right wait it is just a tax like the gun tax same thing scotus said you could tax a right so here they are
Ya, if I can fight and die for my country, drive a car and vote, I should not only be able to have a gun, I should be able to drink at the very least a beer or a glass of wine. In Germany back in1973 I could go in the store and by beer or wine and I was only 13 years old. Nobody drank water from the tap, only Perrier. Lots of free-range titties on the beaches and on the magazine racks too without the brown paper bag hiding them. I didn’t see or hear of anybody being… Read more »
Well the Conservative majority SCOTUS Said it was OK in April