A unanimous appeals panel struck down Florida’s ban on concealed carry for 18-to-20-year-olds — and the state’s own attorney general says he won’t fight the ruling.
Picture the young man walking home after a late shift. He’s 18, maybe 19. Old enough to vote. Old enough to sign a lease, take out a loan, raise his right hand and swear an oath to carry a rifle for his country. But in Florida, until this week, he could not legally carry a handgun to protect himself on that walk home — not because he’d done anything wrong, but simply because of the number of candles on his last birthday cake.
That door is open again. On Wednesday, June 17, 2026, Florida’s Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled — unanimously — that the state’s ban on concealed carry for adults ages 18 to 20 is unconstitutional. And in a development worth noting for gun owners everywhere, the state isn’t appealing. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier called the decision “another win for the unalienable rights of Floridians” and confirmed his office “will not seek further review.”
This is a clean victory. It’s worth understanding exactly what the court held, and why.
What the Court Actually Held
The case is Jaylen Tyrus Eubanks v. State of Florida. Eubanks was 18 when he was arrested in 2024 and convicted of carrying a concealed firearm — the same conduct that would have been perfectly lawful for any adult one to three years older than he was.
The provision at issue was Section 790.06(2)(b) of the Florida Statutes, the part of the licensing law that demanded an applicant be 21 or older. The trial court had brushed aside Eubanks’ constitutional argument. The Fourth DCA reversed it, vacated his conviction, and sent the case back down.
Writing for the three-judge panel, Judge Spencer D. Levine put the question in plain English:
“Can law-abiding adults, aged 18 to 20, be prohibited from exercising their Second Amendment rights to self-defense available to other law-abiding adults? The plain text of the Constitution and our country’s history and traditions say no.”
That single passage tells you everything about how the court got there — and why the answer was never really in doubt once they looked honestly at the question.
Why the Old Rule Was Wrong
If you’ve followed Second Amendment law since 2022, this will feel familiar, because the court walked the road map the Supreme Court laid down in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen.
Under that framework, a court first asks whether the Second Amendment’s plain text covers the conduct. If it does, the burden shifts — and this is the part that matters — onto the government to prove its restriction fits the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Citing Heller, Bruen, and Rahimi, the panel worked through both steps. Florida came up empty.
The court found that 18-to-20-year-olds are part of “the people” the Second Amendment protects — full members of the same political community as every other law-abiding adult, not junior citizens waiting for their rights to vest. And the state could point to no founding-era tradition of stripping that age group of the right to carry for self-defense. To treat these young adults differently, Judge Levine wrote, would make the Second Amendment a “second-class” right.
That phrase carries weight. “Second-class right” comes straight from the Supreme Court’s own warnings that the Second Amendment cannot be treated as the orphan of the Bill of Rights. Florida’s Fourth DCA took the justices at their word and applied it where it plainly belonged.
What It Means Going Forward
Here’s the practical bottom line. In Florida, an otherwise-qualified adult between 18 and 20 can now lawfully carry a concealed firearm on the same terms as any other adult. The age wall in the licensing statute is gone. The attorney general’s office has said it will work with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to bring the licensing system into line.
One honest clarification, because precision matters more than cheerleading. This ruling is about Florida’s carry scheme. It does not touch the separate federal restrictions on buying a handgun from a licensed dealer before 21. That’s a different fight, in a different arena, and it’s not over. But for the young adult who lawfully has a firearm and wants to carry it to defend himself, the door Florida slammed shut years ago is open again.
A Win Worth Marking
After years of watching rights get chipped away one statute at a time, it’s easy to forget what progress actually looks like. This is what it looks like.
A unanimous appellate panel. A clear constitutional holding grounded in text, history, and tradition. And a state attorney general who — rather than burn taxpayer money defending a law he couldn’t defend on the merits — simply accepted the outcome and pledged to implement it.
Young adults in Florida are no longer treated as second-class citizens when it comes to the right to defend themselves. That isn’t a small thing. It’s the Constitution doing exactly what it was written to do — and a reminder to the rest of us that these rights are worth understanding, worth claiming, and worth protecting in every state where the fight is still on.
