Federal appeals court strikes down ban on handgun sales to teens
(Emily Fennick / EyeEm/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals court on Thursday struck down a longstanding federal ban that prevented the sale of handguns to Americans between the ages of 18 and 20 — a landmark gun control regulation in place since 1968.
The conservative Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the federal law banning handgun sales to teens is inconsistent with the nation’s historical tradition and violates the Second Amendment.
The decision cited the Supreme Court’s 2022 opinion by Clarence Thomas in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, which significantly expanded gun rights and threatens to rollback other gun safety laws nationwide.
“Ultimately, the text of the Second Amendment includes eighteen-to-twenty-year-old individuals among ‘the people’ whose right to keep and bear arms is protected,” the court wrote in its opinion statement.
The statement went on, “The federal government has presented scant evidence that eighteen-to-twenty-year-olds’ firearm rights during the founding-era were restricted in a similar manner to the contemporary federal handgun purchase ban, and its 19th century evidence ‘cannot provide much insight into the meaning of the Second Amendment when it contradicts earlier evidence.'”
The immediate nationwide impact of the ruling is unclear. The case is almost certainly bound for the Supreme Court.
Handguns have been the most commonly used weapons in murders and mass shootings for decades in the United States, according to government data analyzed by The Violence Project.
Last term, the Supreme Court upheld a longstanding federal law prohibiting the possession of firearms by people under domestic violence restraining orders.
In the next few weeks, it will consider whether gun manufacturers can be held liable for violent crimes perpetrated by criminals who easily get the weapons.
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(WASHINGTON) — On the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump announced some energy and environmental policy priorities that represent a stark departure from U.S. climate policy under former President Joe Biden.
His professed policies include a declaration of a “national energy emergency,” a rollback of the previous administration’s vehicle emissions standards — which were released last March — and the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, which is a major international agreement intended to reduce the impacts of global warming.
On energy Trump said during his second inaugural address Monday afternoon that he will declare a “national energy emergency” during his first day in office and “drill, baby, drill.”
“We have the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth, and we are going to use it,” Trump said. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again, and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”
The U.S. became a net energy exporter in 2019, during Trump’s first term — a status maintained under the Biden administration. In 2024, the U.S. reached an annual record of 13.2 million barrels per day of crude oil production, according to the Energy Information Administration. Last week, the EIA forecast additional growth for U.S. crude oil production this year in its most recent short-term energy outlook.
America is also already the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas, according to the EIA. The Biden administration paused the approval of additional LNG export facilities last January, with several project proposals awaiting approvals at that time. Ahead of the inauguration, the Trump administration said that it intended to undo this pause and expand LNG exports further.
On EV standards Trump also said Monday that he would “end the Green New Deal” and “revoke the electric vehicle mandate,” in a statement that references Biden-era rules from the Environmental Protection Agency regulating tailpipe emissions from both standard and heavy-duty vehicles.
“With my actions today, we will end the Green New Deal, and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate, saving our auto industry and keeping my sacred pledge to our great American autoworkers,” Trump said. “In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice.”
Trump’s comments misrepresent the Biden-era rules, which were not a mandate for automakers to manufacture electric vehicles and did not require Americans to buy any specific type of car. The standards, released in March 2024, established an average of allowed emissions across a vehicle manufacturer’s entire fleet of offered vehicles. They affected only newly manufactured cars from model years 2027 to 2032.
At the time, Biden administration officials emphasized that there were multiple pathways to compliance with the new tailpipe standards, including the use of improved internal combustion engines, hybrids and fully electric cars.
On the Paris climate accords In a press release, Trump also said he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement on Day 1 — a move that would make good on one of his campaign’s promises.
The Paris Agreement was originally ratified at the annual United Nations Climate Conference (also known as the Conference of the Parties, or COP) in 2015. It intended to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels — a metric scientists believed would significantly reduce the impacts of climate change.
The world exceeded this metric for the first time in 2024, which was the warmest year on record according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
During his first term in office, Trump withdrew from the agreement; however, Biden re-entered it on his first day in office. The Biden administration implemented a slate of policies meant to address the country’s contribution to climate change and help mitigate emissions.
Both priorities are widely expected to change under the new Trump administration.
With another withdrawal, it seems Trump renders moot the Nationally Determined Contribution released by the Biden administration last month. That NDC, required by the Paris Agreement to be updated every five years, claimed the U.S. was setting a goal to cut its greenhouse gas emissions more than 60% by the year 2035.
(CHAMBERS COUNTY, AL) — A fire chief in Alabama has been shot and killed after he stopped to help a driver who had hit a deer with their vehicle, police said.
The incident occurred at approximately 5 p.m. on Sunday when Chambers County deputies in Alabama were dispatched to County Road 267 near U.S. 431 in the Stroud — located about 100 miles northeast of Montgomery — and found three individuals suffering from gunshot wounds upon their arrival, according to a statement from Chambers County Alabama Sheriff’s Office released on Monday.
One of the shooting victims — identified as 54-year-old James Bartholomew Cauthen from Moreland, Georgia — was deceased when authorities arrived. The other two were taken by helicopter to LaGrange and Columbus trauma centers, police said.
“Early investigation indicates that Chief Cauthen was attempting to assist individuals that had struck a deer while traveling on County Road 267,” police said. “Another individual (William Randall Franklin) that resided in the area opened fire on Chief Cauthen and the individual that struck the deer. All individuals were injured during the shootout. Chief Cauthen succumbed to his injuries prior to deputies arriving on the scene.”
Police did not immediately say why Franklin may have opened fire on Cauthen and the unnamed person who struck the deer with their car, but they did say that Cauthen was a battalion fire chief with Coweta County Fire.
“At this time, investigators are working to piece together the events that led to this horrific scene,” Chambers County Alabama Sheriff’s Office said. “Our hearts and prayers go out to Coweta County for his loss.”
An arrest warrant for murder was issued for Franklin and police said he will be arrested upon release from treatment at Piedmont Medical Center.
“Coweta County Fire Rescue continues to be devastated by the tragic passing of Battalion Chief Bart Cauthen,” Coweta Fire and Rescue said in a statement following Cauthen’s death. “Cauthen has been with our department for more than 24 years. He was an amazing, hard-working man with a gentle soul. Just like many of you, we have many questions as we navigate through this horrible tragedy. Our hearts and prayers go out to Cauthen’s family, friends and our brothers and sisters in the Fire Rescue family who worked closely with him.”
Anyone with information pertaining to this case is asked to contact the Criminal Investigations Division at Chambers County Alabama Sheriff’s Office.
The investigation into the shooting currently remains open.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — A 17-year-old boy opened fire at a Nashville high school on Wednesday, killing one student and wounding a second student, according to police.
The teenager, who was armed with a pistol, fired multiple shots in the cafeteria at Antioch High School around 11:09 a.m., Nashville police said.
The suspect then died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, police said.
One female student was killed. A second female student suffered a graze wound to the arm and is in stable condition at a local hospital, police said.
A male student was also injured in the incident but was not shot, police said. The cause of the injury was not clear.
A motive is not known, police said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
