Ninth Circuit Court Just Upheld of These Ridiculous Gun Laws

A divided Ninth Circuit panel upheld two of Hawaii's gun purchase rules on Tuesday, and honestly, the ruling read less like constitutional analysis and more like a creative writing exercise. The court found ways to justify restrictions on young adults buying rifles and handguns, relying on a historical test that somehow keeps producing the same result: the government wins, and your rights lose. The judges who dissented saw it plainly—this is a workaround for a ruling they didn't like.

Here is the irony the majority seems to miss. The Supreme Court told lower courts to look at "history and tradition" when evaluating gun laws. So the Ninth Circuit scoured the past, found some obscure references to age limits and permitting schemes, and declared Hawaii's rules perfectly fine. It is a neat trick if you can pull it off. But the fundamental question isn't whether the islands have a fee for a permit—it's whether the Constitution allows a state to make exercising a right so burdensome that most people just give up. The Bruen decision was supposed to stop this kind of judicial tinkering, yet here we are again, watching judges move the goalposts.

For the average Hawaiian, this means more paperwork, more waiting, and more hoops before they can lawfully buy a firearm. That is the point. These rules are a slow squeeze meant to price people out of a right. And as usual, the people most affected aren't the wealthy collectors—it's the working-class resident who just wants to protect their family. We will keep saying it, because the courts keep proving it: the left never misses an opportunity to make the Second Amendment a privilege you have to beg for. The fight moves on, and it's an expensive and time-consuming one.