PHILADELPHIA — Gun rights groups are looking to leverage an appellate court win at the Third Circuit to challenge Pennsylvania’s ongoing ban on concealed carry for adults under 21 in a newly filed complaint known as Maines v. Bethel.
Filed on Oct. 29, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the case was brought by Daniel Maines, an adult who is barred by Pennsylvania law from carrying a concealed firearm, along with the Firearms Policy Coalition and the National Rifle Association.
The 16-page complaint asserts, “In short, Pennsylvania’s permitting regime denies Plaintiffs their ‘general right to public carry’ in the Commonwealth.”
Pennsylvania law allows citizens to open carry without a license, but bans carry in specific instances, such as in Philadelphia, in a car, or within 1,000 feet of a school property, without a concealed carry permit. Under Section 6109(b), adults under 21 years of age are ineligible to apply for or obtain a carry license, creating a de facto ban for young adults.
The same young adults, as noted by the complaint, may “vote, enter contracts, and get married … join the military to fight and die for his country,” yet are deprived of the same constitutional rights as their peers based simply upon their age.
“Pennsylvania already lost in the Third Circuit when it tried to deny 18-to-20-year-olds their right to carry firearms, but the Commonwealth still insists on treating peaceable adults as second-class citizens,” said FPC President Brandon Combs, in a press statement. “That’s unconstitutional, immoral, and indefensible. Fundamental rights aren’t privileges that politicians get to hand out whenever they feel like it. We’ve beaten age-based bans before, including in Pennsylvania, and we’re coming back to finish the job.”
The lawsuit seeks to leverage the January 2025 ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which struck down Pennsylvania’s ban on young adults carrying firearms during a state of emergency (see related reporting).
The Third Circuit denied the state’s request to rehear the case in February of 2025, leaving the state the option to appeal to the Supreme Court, which it did. The Supreme Court (which had previously granted the petition, vacated the judgment, and remanded the case to the Third Circuit for further consideration in light of United States v. Rahimi) this time, denied the petition on June 30, 2026, leaving the Third Circuit’s ruling in place.
The Supreme Court has turned down the opportunity to review several cases addressing similar laws in other jurisdictions, even though there are clear splits among the circuit courts, including the recent June 30 denial in NRA v. Glass (see related reporting).
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