Florida court strikes down concealed carry ban for adults ages 18 to 20

A Florida appeals court ruled Wednesday that the state's concealed carry ban for adults ages 18 to 20 violates the Second Amendment, finding that young adults are entitled to the same constitutional protections as law-abiding adults over 20.

In an extreme view, the court said that 18-year-olds can serve in the military and protect the nation but face restrictions on being able to exercise the same self-defense rights available to adults.

“Eighteen to 20-year-olds can defend themselves without restraint but can only exercise their Second Amendment right to self-defense with strict limits,” Judge Spencer D. Levine wrote to a unanimous three-judge panel in Florida's Quadruple Circuit Court.

“Limiting 18- to 20-year-olds — members of the same 'political community' as other law-abiding adults — from rights to self-defense would make the Second Amendment a 'second right,'” Levine wrote.

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The decision comes after Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier declined to defend the law earlier this year.

“In another win for Floridians' unalienable rights, the 4th DCA agreed with our position that Florida's law prohibiting adults under the age of 21 from carrying a concealed handgun is unconstitutional,” Uthmeier wrote in X.

“We will not seek further review and will work with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to enforce the court order,” he wrote.

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Florida's gun law manual is on display at the Top Shottas Guns and Tactical Supply store in Fort Lauderdale on June 29, 2023, ahead of a new state law allowing concealed carry without a permit that goes into effect on July 1. (Carline Jean/Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

The case stems from the 2024 arrest of Jaylen Eubanks, who was 18 at the time. According to the theory, police responding to a report of someone pointing a gun at Eubanks found an unloaded gun in his waistband. He was charged with carrying a concealed firearm and improper display of a firearm.

Eubanks challenged the concealed carry charge, saying Florida's age restriction violates the Second Amendment. The law was approved following the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 people died. The trial court dismissed Eubanks' decision, but the appeals court overturned it.

Citing Supreme Court precedent including Heller, Bruen and Rahimi, the court said adults ages 18 to 20 are among the “persons” protected by the Second Amendment and that Florida failed to identify a historical precedent supporting the limitation.

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James Uthmeier speaks at the National Conservative Convention in Washington, DC, on September 3, 2025. (Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

The panel also pointed to founding-era military regulations that required most 18-year-old men to serve under arms.

“That young people were required to serve in the military shows that founding-era lawmakers believed that these young people could, and should, bear arms,” ​​the opinion said.

The court rejected arguments that concerns about gun misuse among young adults warranted such a limit, saying that Florida failed to identify a historical tradition supporting the law and that adults ages 18 to 20 would not have been treated as categories historically subject to gun restrictions, such as criminals or the mentally ill.

“Everyone who reaches the age of 18 can, and is encouraged to, for example, join the military to defend our country,” Levine wrote.

“But those same law-abiding adults are burdened in their ability to exercise the same Second Amendment rights that other adults have.”

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The court vacated Eubanks' sentence and remanded the case for further proceedings.