If you’re 18-years-old in this country, you can do damn near anything you want. You can get married, enlist in the military, buy a car, get a credit card, take on debt, just about anything and all without asking a parent’s permission. After all, at 18, you’re an adult.

One thing you can’t do, however, is purchase a handgun.

A while back, a lawsuit was filed in an effort to overturn that back in October of last year.

The federal district court ruled against them, but the plaintiffs aren’t giving up.

Both plaintiffs have tried to purchase handguns from licensed gun dealers and were turned down due to their age.

This is interesting because, in much of the country, 18-year-olds and older are permitted to purchase long guns. That includes the much-demonized AR-15 as well as things like shotguns and hunting rifles. Yet a handful of states have made it so you have to be 21 to purchase a long gun as well. These regulations, coupled with the federal law barring anyone under 21 from buying a handgun, and you have a situation where law-abiding legal adults are prohibited from exercising their Second Amendment rights.

Of course, Virginia isn’t one of those states, but it’s still a topic worthy of discussion and consideration by the courts.

Frankly, I don’t think anyone should be surprised this one got kicked up the chain to the Court of Appeals. In fact, it probably needs to be decided at this level, and not just in Virginia. My hope is that we can get some conflicting rulings so this ends up on the Supreme Court’s desk and they agree to hear it.

The fact is that we currently treat 18-year-olds as second-class citizens. They deserve to have all of their civil liberties, not just the ones popular with the anti-gun crowd.

With luck, they’ll get that sooner or later. Not just for the sake of these two folks, but for the sake of everyone between age 18 and 21…including my son who also can’t buy a handgun if he wanted.