Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker on Wednesday refused to dismiss the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) challenge to a Florida gun law barring firearm sales to young adults aged 18-20.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that the officer of Florida General Attorney Ashley Moody urged Walker to dismiss the case, but he ruled instead that the case should be allowed to continue.
In so doing Walker stressed that he was not tasked with deciding whether the NRA’s arguments against the gun control law were accurate. Rather, he was simply making clear that the case should be able to move on to a point where a decision can be made via a trial setting.
Walker wrote:
It is important to keep in mind the narrow issue before the court at this stage of the proceedings. This court is not asked to, and does not, decide whether (the law) is constitutional. Rather, the question is whether plaintiffs’ complaint contains “enough facts to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.”
The state of Florida adopted a law prohibiting long gun sales to young adults, aged 18-20 years old, after the February 14, 2018, Parkland high school shooting.
The Orlando Weekly reports that “key support” for passage of the law came from Senate President Bill Galvano (R-Bradenton).
On January 17, 2020, Breitbart News reported that Galvano’s political action committee received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donation’s from Mike Bloomberg-founded Everytown for Gun Safety. The Tampa Bay Times reported a donation to Galvano’s committee in the sum of $200,000 and the Florida Department of State Division of Elections shows that Galvano received an additional $300,000 given as well.
The case is National Rifle Association of America v. Swearingen, No. 4:18-cv-00137 in the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of Florida.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.