The Wrong Level of Generality: Misapplying Bruen to Young-Adult Firearm Rights
By George A. Mocsary
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
Three relatively recent appellate opinions—McCoy v. ATF, National Rifle Ass’n v. Bondi, and Rocky Mountain Gun Owners v. Polis—upheld modern restrictions on 18-to-20-year-old adults’ ability to purchase firearms. Each does so by choosing the wrong level of generality in its historical analysis. Rather than ask whether there is a tradition of restricting young adults’ arms rights, McCoy and Bondi reach for broad, non-firearm-specific infancy rules from contract law; Polis reframes the question as a generic regulation of commercial sales. These choices depart from New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen’s analogical method, which instructs courts to use closely matching analogues where available and to abstract up only when necessary. When the historical record includes firearm-specific sources about 18-to-20-year-olds’ rights and duties, courts must use those sources rather than attenuated contract law rules designed to protect minors from unscrupulous adults or a rebuttable safe harbor for sales regulations.
Recommended Citation
George A. Mocsary, The Wrong Level of Generality: Misapplying Bruen to Young-Adult Firearm Rights, 103 Wash. U. L. Rev. Online 100 (2025).
