That’s right, the Brady Campaign is cheering the recent 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the dismissal of NRA et al. v. ATF et al., their lawsuit challenging the federal prohibition of 18-20 year-olds from buying handguns from FFLs. And the Bradys have so few wins these days they’re going all out to trumpet their big “success.” So what’s the big deal?. . .

It’s this: current federal law doesn’t prohibit under 21s from owning handguns; they just can’t buy them through an FFL. And given the Bradys’ stance on background checks (hint: they like ’em), you might think they’d support the NRA’s suit to ensure that 18-20 year-olds can buy guns through FFLs…and have to go through a “Brady check”.

But no. If the NRA is fer it, the Bradys are gonna be agin’ it. So the status quo remains: any 18-year-old who wants a handgun will continue to have to buy them from friends or others via those scary individual or “gun show loophole” sales — the ones that don’t require NICS checks.

From the Brady presser:

“We are pleased that this court has affirmed that the Second Amendment allows for common sense gun laws restricting teens from buying handguns from gun dealers,” said Jon Lowy, Director of the Brady Center’s Legal Action Project. “Eight children and teens are shot to death every day in America. We are better than this, and it’s crucial that we protect our children and communities by preventing guns from falling into the hands of dangerous people.”

Quick aside: Jon’s claim that “eight children and teens are shot to death” is, shockingly, misleading. A quarter of those deaths are suicides. Repeated studies have shown that suicide rates are independent of method; if firearm access is restricted in a population, the rate of firearm suicide may drop but the overall suicide rate remains unchanged. That doesn’t make Jon a hypocrite, it just makes him a liar.

So the Brady Campaign wants it both ways. They’ll shout one day that every sale should go through the NICS system. Then, on the very same day, they’ll cheer a ruling they worked for that will prevent exactly that. Just another day in the Brady bizarro world of gun control.

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19 COMMENTS

  1. “So the status quo remains: any 18-year-old who wants a shotgun or other firearm will continue to have to buy them from friends or others via those scary individual or “gun show loophole” sales”

    Don’t you mean handguns?

  4. The Brady Campaign is just happy to win. Obviously, they would seek legislation to keep anyone from owning a firearm that is under 21 if they could. They don’t oppose the checks, they just are happy to keep people from exercising a constitutional right.

  6. If I am correct, the long gun purchase can be done through an FFL. However I do see Bruce’s tongue and cheek here.
    It is perfectly legal for an 18 year old to “purchase” or be “gifted” a hand gun by a private party. So in this instance Dad, or Mom, goes in an buys the gun, then turns right around and hands it to his or her son or daughter. That seems to be a case of diminished returns here.
    In the end it really solves nothing.

  7. That they are calling this a victory is just more evidence that the Bradys couldn’t care about the legal right to bear arms and want to eliminate all firearms ownership. All their talk about “keeping them out of the hands of criminals” is just a front.

  8. I just had to laugh out loud to read that the Brady Bunch is so used to twisting and distorting facts and just plain making s**t up that they do not recognize their “win” is really not a win. Wonder if they’ll ever figure it out.

  9. I thought it was obvious they want to fix the discrepancy by removing legal ownership, not extending background checks.

  10. I read something several years ago that when you look closely at the details, a person is considered a child up to 25 years old when the gun grabbers tab the numbers.

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