The right to bear scary arms
A Californian federal appeals court has struck down a state ban on the sale of semi-automatic firearms to people under the age of 21. The reasoning is quite exceptional, albeit illogical. But what's logic got to do with US gun law?
"America would not exist without the heroism of the young adults who fought and died in our revolutionary army," Judge Ryan Nelson wrote in the 100-page ruling from the San Francisco-based 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals, overturning the law.
Huh? The revolutionary army didn't have semi-automatic weapons. Or California, for that matter. (confused)
Young guns
The Firearms Policy Coalition hopes that the ruling will lead to the removal of other age-based gun restrictions.
Data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) last month shows that guns overtook car crashes to become the leading cause of deaths for US children and teenagers in 2020. Over 4,300 young people died of firearms-related injuries that year, the data shows.
I guess the argument being that if they were armed, they could've defended themselves? (shrug)
By the end of the American Revolutionary War, in 1783, California was still under Spanish rule. The state wasn't admitted into the Union until 1850.
Semi-automatic weapons weren't introduced into the US military until the adoption of the M1911 pistol in 1911.
The numbers are staggering. More than 4,300 under-18s died from firearm-related injuries in 2020. By comparison, some 50 American police officers died from gunfire injuries in the same year.
Sarah Smith, North America editor, BBC News
And that proves it. Fewer police officers die, because they're armed. Arming children is the only sensible way to protect them at school. (rolleyes)
And I'm sure that my buddies at the NRA would agree. (nod)