Judges deny request to rehear challenge to rules on firearms

Case contested age requirement for gun carry permit issuance

The judges comprising the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia on Wednesday denied a petition submitted by the commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, Colonel Christopher Paris, to rehear a challenge to the state's Uniform Firearms Act that bars the issuance of gun carry permits for adults under 21 years old.

A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit in January reversed an order by a federal District Judge William S. Stickman IV, presiding in Pittsburgh, that upheld the state's gun laws.

The panel included Senior Judge D. Brooks Smith, Kent A. Jordan and L. Felipe Restrepo.

Smith and Jordan in the January opinion agreed that the Pennsylvania ban on carry permits for young adults was a violation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which states: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

Restrepo filed a dissenting opinion.

That January decision reversed Stickman's decision upholding the ban, but the commissioner filed a request for a rehearing of the matter before the Court, sitting en banc -- the entire court as opposed to the three-judge panel that reversed the district judge.

According to Wednesday's decision issued by Judge Smith, the court sitting en banc included 13 judges.

Five of the judges were in favor of the rehearing, according to Smith's report, including Judge Cheryl Ann Krause, who issued an 18-page dissenting opinion explaining why she believes the court should have granted a rehearing.

Smith, in issuing the order, pointed out that no judge who concurred in the overturning of Stickman's decision (Smith and Jordan) sought a rehearing, and it concluded "a majority of the judges of the Circuit ... not having voted for rehearing, the petition for rehearing by the panel and the Court en banc, is denied."

The Smith order indicated that Jordan retired in January and did not participate in the rehearing request.

The case, known as Madison Lara and others, v. Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, will now be returned to the Pittsburgh judge for further proceedings.

It was filed in 2020 by several residents living in the Western part of the state.

In the meantime, a very similar lawsuit was filed in the District Court in Johnstown by two 19-year-old women, Hannah Young of Blair County and Ariana Palmaccio of Luzerne County.

The women challenged the ban on carry permits for young adults, noting they wanted to carry firearms for protection.

The lawsuit filed in Johnstown names as defendants the state police commissioner and the sheriffs of Blair and Luzerne counties, who issue the carry permits locally.

The lawsuit by the women was filed last year.

U.S. District Judge Stephanie Haines, presiding in Johnstown, has placed the latest case on hold, pending further developments in the case before Stickman.

Both lawsuits argue that young adults -- over the age of 18 -- are able to vote, speak out, assemble, and otherwise "are among the people" protected by the constitution.

Their right to bear arms, it is argued, stems from a time when young adults were required to serve in the militia.

Krause, in her dissenting opinion, stated, "When they ratified the Second Amendment, our Founders did not intend to bind the nation in a straitjacket of 18th century legislation, nor did they mean to prevent future generations from protecting themselves against gun violence more rampant and destructive than the Founders could have possibly imagined."

She went on to state that founding-era legislatures were authorized to disarm groups that posed a particular risk of danger.

"Pennsylvania's modern-day judgment that youth under 21 pose such a risk of danger is well-supported by evidence subject to judicial notice," she wrote.

She cited crime statistics showing youth under 21 years of age commit violent gun crimes "at a far disproportionate rate."

"National data collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation also confirms that homicide rates peak between the ages of 18 and 20," she continued.

She also argued that times have changed.

Interpersonal gun violence during the founding generation was not a concern.

The firearms of the past (black powder and muzzle-loading weapons) have been replaced by automatic assault rifles and high-capacity magazines, she related.

"Horrific mass shootings have become a daily occurrence, with over 500 such shootings in 2024 alone," Krause stated.

She voted for a rehearing of the case.