Colorado Gun Sales Ban Sparks Historical Questions at Argument

A Tenth Circuit panel wrestled with the history of gun regulation and how it should apply to a Colorado firearm sales ban at oral arguments Tuesday, casting doubt on both sides’s version of the past in the Second Amendment dispute.

The state of Colorado maintained its law banning gun sales to people younger than 21 is consistent with the federal government’s historical regulation of guns and therefore passes the US Supreme Court’s test in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen.

One judge argued that 18- to 20-year-olds didn’t buy firearms themselves, even when militia law required ...