FPC Sues Pennsylvania Over Carry Age

Firearms Policy Coalition and the NRA just filed a second federal lawsuit against Pennsylvania, this time going after the Commonwealth's flat refusal to let 18-to-20-year-old adults even apply for a carry license.

State of play: Pennsylvania requires a license to carry a concealed firearm, carry one in a vehicle, or carry one in public in Philadelphia. Adults under 21 are categorically barred from applying. Unlicensed open carry is legal in some parts of the state, but that doesn't cover cars or Philly streets — meaning an 18-year-old driving to work or walking downtown Philadelphia can't legally carry at all.

• Vehicles: No license means no carry in a car, period, for anyone under 21.
• Philadelphia: Open carry requires a license there too — one these adults can't get.
• School zones: The federal Gun-Free School Zones Act bans carry within 1,000 feet of schools unless you hold a state-issued license. No license, no exception — even for open carry that's otherwise legal under state law.

The lawsuit, Maines v. Bethel, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania on behalf of FPC, the NRA, and an individual member denied his right to carry. It argues the licensing ban violates the Second and Fourteenth Amendments, and that under Bruen and Rahimi, Pennsylvania has to show a historical tradition of disarming 18-to-20-year-olds — a tradition FPC says doesn't exist.

The intrigue: This isn't FPC's first win here. In Lara v. Paris, the Third Circuit already ruled that 18-to-20-year-olds are protected by the Second Amendment and struck down Pennsylvania's restrictions on open carry during declared emergencies — a ruling the Third Circuit reaffirmed in January 2025 after the Supreme Court sent it back for a second look. Pennsylvania lost that fight but is still enforcing a separate licensing ban that produces the same result through a different door.

"At 18, you can vote, get married, sign contracts, and serve in the military — but Pennsylvania says you can't even apply for a license to carry a gun in your own car or on a street in Philadelphia," said FPC President Brandon Combs.

The bigger campaign: This case doesn't stand alone. FPC points to the Eighth Circuit's ruling against Minnesota's age-based carry permit ban in Worth v. Jacobson, plus active lawsuits challenging similar bans in Illinois (Meyer v. Raoul), Georgia (Baughcum v. Jackson), and Louisiana (Pool v. Besson). The legal theory is consistent across all of them: if you're old enough to be treated as an adult for everything else, the state can't treat the Second Amendment as something that kicks in at 21.

What to watch: The Eastern District of Pennsylvania now has to weigh whether the Lara precedent effectively dictates the outcome here, or whether the Commonwealth can dig up a historical basis for age-21 licensing that it couldn't find for age-21 open carry. Given the Third Circuit's track record on this exact issue, Pennsylvania's odds don't look great — but expect the state to fight this one out rather than fold early.