Founding Partner and Past FACDL President Jason Blank Quoted in Article About the Section of the Florida Law Prohibiting Adults Under Age 21 from Carrying a Concealed Firearm Being Unconstitutional

By Rafael Olmeda
South Florida Sun Sentinel
10/25/2025

Effectively dismissing a case against a Fort Lauderdale resident who turns 20 in December, Broward Circuit Judge Frank Ledee said the restriction is inconsistent with the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which guarantees the right of the people to keep and bear arms, and with other Florida laws permitting both concealed and open carry of weapons. Ledee agreed with the defense argument that 18-year-olds are treated as adults in multiple legal settings, including the ability to vote, marry and serve in the armed forces.

“Because the Second Amendment’s plain text applies to the concealed carry of firearms, Florida’s concealed carry ban, as applied to eighteen-to-twenty year olds, is unconstitutional unless the State can affirmatively prove that the prohibition is consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation,” Ledee said, finding that the state had not met that burden in the case against Joel Andrew Walkes, 19, of Fort Lauderdale.

“It takes courage to put these questions before the court and for the court to consider them fairly,” said Public Defender Gordon Weekes, whose office defended Walkes. “This whole area of law around the Second Amendment is being developed. This is a valid question for us to address in court.”

Assistant Public Defender Thomas Cottone argued Walkes’ position before Ledee.

The Broward State Attorney’s Office is reviewing the ruling and will decide how to proceed, said office spokeswoman Paula McMahon.

“Judges make rulings independent of politics and based on the law,” said defense lawyer Bill Gelin, who was in the courtrooom when the ruling was issued and posted it on the unofficial courthouse news and gossip site JAABlog. “He’s making a gutsy decision that could be unpopular in a true-blue county like Broward … [Ledee is] equally tough on the state and defense. He doesn’t play around; he calls it like he sees it.”

It was unclear Friday afternoon how far the ruling would extend. Both Weekes and Bob Jarvis, law professor at Nova Southeastern University, said the ruling applies only to the Walkes case for now. But both acknowledged the likelihood of an appeal to determine the issue or to settle conflicts of other judges who don’t agree with Ledee’s ruling.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has decidedly taken a very broad interpretation of the Second Amendment, which much more favors all majority-aged Americans being free to carry, possess, and use firearms with only limited restriction,” said Jason Blank, immediate past president of the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. “The conflicts and inconsistencies across Florida’s gun laws were spotlighted by today’s ruling. I can only hope the Legislature takes appropriate action to draft better laws which balance Floridians’ Second Amendment right to bear arms and the right for them to remain safe despite that Second Amendment right.”

The age restriction on gun purchases and ownership was a key part of the reforms passed in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018, when a teenage gunman shot and killed 17 people, wounding another 17. But some of those reforms have been reversed in the years that have passed, as Second Amendment advocates have won numerous court victories culminating in the recent Florida ruling allowing open carry.

“In the state of Florida they will let somebody be a cop at 19,” said Luis Valdes, Florida director of Gun Owners of America. “They can carry a gun and take a life. But if that same person is a member of John Q. Public, he lacks the maturity to own and carry a gun. That’s just hypocrisy. This judge got it exactly right.”