MEMORANDUM & ORDER
1. INTRODUCTION
In the wake of District of Columbia v. Heller,
Aaron Powell (“Powell”) brings this habeas petition under 28 U.S.C. section 2254, appealing from a decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (“Supreme Judicial Court”) affirming his convictions for, inter alia, possession of a firearm without a firearm identification (“FID”) card and carrying a firearm without a license. In his petition, Powell contends that (1) the statutory presumption in Massachusetts General Laws chapter 278, section 7, placing the burden of producing evidence of an FID card and a license to carry a firearm on the defendant, violates his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and his right to bear arms under the Second Amendment;
A. Procedural Posture
Subsequent to a bench trial held on January 30, 2009, in the Central Division of the Boston Municipal Court, Powell was convicted of (1) possession of a firearm without an FID card, in violation of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 269, section 10(h); (2) carrying a loaded firearm without a license, in violation of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 265, section 10(n); (3) resisting arrest, in violation of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 268, section 32B; and (4) carrying a firearm without a license, in violation of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 269, section 10(a).
Powell initially appealed his convictions to the Massachusetts Appeals Court, but the appeal was ultimately taken up by the Supreme Judicial Court sua sponte on August 24, 2010. Habeas Pet. 3. On April 28, 2011, the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed all of Powell’s convictions. Id.; see Commonwealth v. Powell,
On April 23, 2012, Powell filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus in this Court and included with it a memorandum in support of his petition. Habeas Pet.; Pet’r’s Mem. The Commonwealth electronically filed an answer to Powell’s petition on June 1, 2012, Answer, ECF No. 10, and on the same day, manually filed a supplemental answer with this Court,
B. Facts
The background of this case is set forth in extensive detail in the earlier decision by the Supreme Judicial Court. See Powell, 459 Mass, at 575-76, 582,
Around 11 o’clock in the evening on August 20, 2008, two Boston police officers, Manuel Bias (“Officer Bias”) and Scott Roby (“Officer Roby”), were patrolling the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston in an unmarked police cruiser when they came across a large gathering of teenagers and young adults at the intersection of Sonoma Street and Maple Street. Powell, 459 Mass, at 575,
Peering out of the police cruiser, Officer Bias noticed a young man, who happened to be Powell,
Shortly thereafter, Officer Bias asked Powell to explain why he had run away from the police cruiser and whether he had a license for the firearm that he had dropped. Id. at 582,
II. ANALYSIS
A. Standard of Review
Under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”), Pub. L. No. 104-132, 110 Stat. 1214 (codified as amended in scattered sections of the U.S.Code), a federal court is permitted to grant habeas relief with respect to any and all claims adjudicated on the merits in a state court only if such adjudication (1) “resulted in a decision that was contrary to, or involved an unreasonable application of, clearly established Federal law, as determined by the Supreme Court of the United States” or (2) “resulted in a decision that was based on an unreasonable determination of the facts in light of the evidence presented in the State court proceeding.” 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d)(l)-(2). A state court’s decision is “contrary to” clearly established federal law if it “applies a rule different from the governing law set forth in [Supreme Court] cases, or if it decides a case differently than [the Supreme Court] ha[s] done on a set of materially indistinguishable facts.” Bell v. Cone,
B. Statutory Presumption Pertaining to the Possession and Carrying of a Firearm Without a License
Massachusetts General Laws chapter 269, section 10(h) authorizes punishment
Powell argues that the statutory presumption embedded in Massachusetts General Laws chapter 278, section 7 abrogates the due process rights accorded him under the Fourteenth Amendment and is violative of his right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment. Pet’r’s Mem. 12-17, 19-22. This Court will address each of these claims in the order presented.
1. Due Process
Powell urges this Court to sidestep the standard enunciated by AEDPA and to review his due process claim de novo. Pet’r’s Mem. 7-9. He makes much of the fact that, in deciding his appeal, the Supreme Judicial Court made no mention of any Supreme Court cases or other relevant federal authorities. Id. Yet the Supreme Court itself has already spoken to this very issue, holding that state courts need not even be aware of — let alone cite to — its decisions, “so long as neither the reasoning nor the result of the state-court decision contradicts them.” Early v. Packer,
This Court disagrees, although on somewhat different grounds than those furnished by the Supreme Judicial Court. In arriving at the conclusion that Powell bore the burden of producing evidence of an FID card and a license to carry, the Supreme Judicial Court primarily relied upon its earlier decision in Commonwealth v. Jones,
We hold that [Massachusetts General Laws chapter 278, section 7], establishing a presumption that the defendant, until he proves a license, is not so authorized, is constitutional....
The holding of a valid license brings the defendant within an exception to the general prohibition against carrying a firearm, and is an affirmative defense. Absence of a license is not “an element of the crime,” as that phrase is commonly used. In the absence of evidence with respect to a license, no issue is presented with respect to licensing. In other words, the burden is on the defendant to come forward with evidence of the defense. If such evidence is presented, however, the burden is on the prosecution to persuade the trier of facts beyond a reasonable doubt that the defense does not exist.8
Id. at 404, 406,
Much confusion stems from Jones’s muddled rationale for upholding Massachusetts General Laws chapter 278, section 7. Put simply, the Jones court’s oblique and intermingled references to presumptions, defenses, burdens, and the like “left ambiguity as to whether the licensing requirement was an element of the crime or an affirmative defense.” Gonzalez v. Dickhaut, No. 08-11657,
Yet these interpretations defy the plain reading of both the relevant firearms statutes and Powell’s criminal complaint,
Thus, this Court rejects the reasoning adduced in Jones with respect to criminal elements and holds instead that the absence of a license, specifically as applied to the crimes of unlawful possession of a firearm and unlawful carrying of a firearm, cannot properly be styled an affirmative defense. Rather, the legally operative elements of the two offenses under review are, respectively, (1) the possession or ownership (2) of a firearm (3) without an FID card; and (1) the knowing (2) carrying (3) of a firearm (4) without a license to carry said firearm. Cf. Gonzalez,
The test for determining the validity of statutory presumptions comes from Tot v. United States,
In determining whether a presumption may be accurately characterized as permissive or mandatory, “the jury instructions will generally be controlling, although their interpretation may require recourse to the statute involved and the cases decided under it.” Id. Because
Because the burden of production may be met by a minimal showing — that is, the mere production of a license — the mandatory presumption in Massachusetts General Laws chapter 278, section 7 may be assessed under the standard governing permissive presumptions. See Allen,
At trial in the case at bar, the Commonwealth had to offer up only enough evidence for a rational jury to find beyond a reasonable doubt that Powell possessed a firearm and knowingly carried it beyond the walls of his home or place of business. This it did. See Pet’r’s Mem. 15. Powell, however, did not at any time before or during trial produce either an FID card or a license to carry, so as matter of law, he has failed to raise a triable issue. Accordingly, this Court holds that the placement of the burden of production on Powell to provide such evidence did no violence to his due process rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
2. Second Amendment
The Supreme Judicial Court declined to consider Powell’s properly raised claim regarding the constitutionality of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 278, section 7 in light of the Supreme Court’s decisions in District of Columbia v. Heller,
The Second Amendment, by its terms, provides a powerful (albeit concise) constitutional guarantee: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” U.S. Const, amend. II. In Heller, the Supreme Court struck down a provision in the District of Columbia Official Code barring the possession of lawfully owned and operable handguns in the home.
Powell argues that the Second Amendment, as defined in Heller and McDonald,
[Njothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms.
Id. at 626-27,
It is well settled that “the requirement of prior approval by a government officer, or a licensing system, does not by itself render [a firearms] statute unconstitutional on its face.” Loadholt, 460 Mass, at 726,
C. Ineffective Assistance of Counsel
Officer Bias testified at trial that, immediately after apprehending Powell, he asked Powell why he fled when he spotted the police cruiser and whether he possessed a license for the firearm that he dropped while being pursued. Powell, 459 Mass, at 582,
Powell again requests de novo review. He argues that the Supreme Judicial Court “completely skipped the merits” of his ineffective-assistance-of-counsel claim and that, as a result, “there is no res
This argument, however, is plainly incorrect. The Supreme Judicial Court, in assessing the strength of Powell’s Sixth Amendment claim, employed the standard set out in its earlier decision in Commonwealth v. Saferian,
That said, although the reasoning of the Supreme Judicial Court is eminently sensible, this Court wishes to take the opportunity here to spell out additional reasons — made with express reference to Strickland and its progeny in the federal courts — why Powell’s claim for ineffective assistance fails. To prevail on a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland, a defendant must demonstrate that “counsel’s representation fell below an objective standard of reasonableness” and that the deficiency in representation was “prejudicial to the defense.”
Whether Powell’s trial counsel’s failure to file a suppression motion to exclude Powell’s statement to Officer Bias
Even if this Court were to grant Powell’s proposition that his trial counsel’s failure to file a motion to suppress the statement made to Officer Bias fell below a standard of objective reasonableness, Powell has not shown that such an error rises to the level of prejudice. In his memorandum in support of his habeas petition, Powell relies heavily upon Commonwealth v. Haskell,
D. Age-Based Restrictions on the Issuance of Firearms Licenses 1. Standing
Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, sections 129B and 131 set out the requirements for obtaining an FID card and a license to carry a firearm in the Commonwealth, respectively. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140, §§ 129B, 131. Relevant for the purposes of this inquiry are the provisions of these two statutes that place age-based restrictions on the issuance of FID cards and licenses to carry. Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 129B(l)(v)-(vi) proscribes the granting of an FID card to children under the age of fifteen and to children between the ages of fifteen and eighteen who have not offered documentation confirming parental or guardian consent to the children’s receipt of the card, id. § 129B(l)(v)-(vi), whereas Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 131(d)(iv) disallows the issuance of a license to carry to any person who “is at the time of the application less than 21 years of age,” id. § 131(d)(iv).
The Supreme Judicial Court held that Powell lacked standing to bring his Second Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment claims because, prior to his arrest, he had applied for neither an FID card nor a license to carry a firearm. 459 Mass, at 589-91,
His contention is correct. Because the Supreme Judicial Court did not reach the merits of the constitutional claims raised in Powell’s habeas petition, this Court owes its decision no deference and is at liberty to review this issue de novo. See, e.g., Cone v. Bell,
In general, a person may establish standing to challenge a firearms licensing statute on constitutional grounds only by first submitting to the statute so challenged. United States v. Decastro,
The Supreme Judicial Court’s assessment of Powell’s standing to challenge the age-restricted firearms licensing scheme in Massachusetts is erroneous, at least in part. Powell was eighteen years old at the time he was charged for the offenses underlying his convictions. See Powell, 459 Mass, at 573 n. 2, 946 N.Eüd 114. Although he faced no obstacles to lawfully obtaining an FID card, see Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140, § 129B(l)(v)-(vi), Powell was statutorily ineligible to apply for a license to carry in Massachusetts, see id. § 131(d)(iv). Powell need not prove that he would have been denied a license to carry solely on the basis of his age in order to satisfy standing requirements. Cf. Bach v. Pataki,
Accordingly, this Court holds that, while Powell does not have standing to challenge his conviction under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 269, section 10(h) for possessing a firearm without an FID card, he does indeed have standing to challenge his conviction under Massachusetts General Laws chapter 269, section 10(a) for carrying a firearm without a license.
2. Merits
Having held that Powell has standing to challenge Massachusetts’s license-to-carry statute, this Court now turns to the merits of his constitutional claims.
a. Second Amendment
For better or worse, Heller left to the lower courts the task of establishing coherent analytical frameworks for determining whether a given firearms regulation runs afoul of the Second Amendment. See
i. Scope of the Second Amendment Guarantee
The first question to be addressed in this inquiry is whether the age-based limitation on a license to carry in Massachusetts imposes a burden on conduct falling within the scope of the Second Amendment guarantee.
Firearms regulations have a deep and rich heritage in this country, with a lineage that can be traced back before the Founding Era.
Of particular import to the case at bar, however, are those regulations targeting groups of otherwise law-abiding people who were thought to be dangers to public safety. Fearful of the threat that Crown-beholden colonists posed to the ultimate success of the American Revolution, numerous states, including Massachusetts, enacted statutes requiring weapons owners to pledge their allegiance to their state of citizenship and the United States or else face the consequence of disarmament. Id. at 506-07; see also Winkler, supra, at 116 (“The Loyalists disarmed by these rules ... weren’t criminals or traitors who took up arms on behalf of the British. They were ordinary citizens exercising their imidamental right to freedom of conscience.”). During and preceding the early years of the republic, the ability of slaves to own and carry weapons was severely constrained, see Clayton E. Cramer, The Racist Roots of Gun Control, Kan. J.L. & Pub. Pol’y, Winter 1995, at 17, 17-18 (“Restrictions on slave possession of arms in the North American English colonies go back a very long way----” Id. at 18), as was those of free blacks, mulattoes, and Native Americans, see, e.g., Cornell & DeDino, supra, at 516 (identifying an 1806 Virginia law making it mandatory for all free blacks and mulattoes to obtain licenses in order to possess and carry guns or ammunition); Thomas N. Ingersoll, Free Blacks in a Slave Society: New Orleans, 1718-1812, 48 Wm. & Mary Q. 173, 198 (1991) (reporting efforts by the Louisiana Superi- or Council during the early 1800s “to exclude free blacks from positions in which they were required to bear arms,” which included “attempt[s] to demobilize the black militia ... [and] to replace the old black slave-catching crews with a white constabulary”); cf, e.g., Robert J. Cottrol & Raymond T. Diamond, The Second Amendment: Toward an Afro-Americanist Reconsideration, 80 Geo. L.J. 309, 323-324 (1991) (“For the settlers of British North America, an armed and universally deputized white population was necessary not only to ward off dangers from the armies of other European powers, but also to ward off attacks from the indigenous population which feared the encroachment of English settlers on their lands.”). When one accounts for the fact that the number of minorities and Loyalists in America far exceeded that of whites at the
Classification-based firearms regulations persisted well beyond the Founding Era, although state legislatures moved away from their predominant preoccupation with the perils of race and national allegiance to consider those associated with youth. By the turn of the twentieth century, nearly twenty states had laws restricting the ability of persons under the age of twenty-one to access firearms, and over the course of the next twenty or so years, this number steadily grew. See National Rifle Ass’n,
The facts evinced from this quick jaunt through history establish that certain access-limiting conditions were and may lawfully be imposed upon individuals seeking to own and use firearms. Age-based restrictions, enacted for reasons of public safety, are among those lawful impositions. Accordingly, this Court holds as matter of law that Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 131(d)(iv)’s proscription against grants of licenses to carry firearms to adults under the age of twenty-one comports with the Second Amendment and imposes no burden on the rights of eighteen- to twenty-year-olds to keep and bear arms.
Despite concluding that the age-based limitation on licenses to carry to adults twenty-one years of age or older does not unduly burden Powell’s right to keep and bear arms, this Court, in the interest of prudence, nonetheless proceeds to assess whether Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 131(d)(iv) passes constitutional scrutiny.
Although the Heller Court foreclosed the use of either rational basis scrutiny or interest-balancing in the analysis of firearms regulations,
Generally, courts look to the legislative history antecedent to a bill’s passage to glean the legislative intent behind the bill’s enactment. See McGuire v. Reilly,
That said, the customary absence of deliberative or motivational impressions from Massachusetts legislation does not automatically render void all laws enacted by the General Court; rather, courts are permitted to reach beyond legislative history and probe other relevant materials — including earlier iterations of a statute’s text and even rigorous empirical data — to divine legislative intent. See, e.g., Barnes v. Glen Theatre, Inc.,
Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 131 finds its origins in a piece of 1906 legislation informally titled “An Act to Regulate by License the Carrying of Concealed Weapons,” which reads, in relevant part, as the following:
The justice of a court, or trial justices, the board of police or mayor of a city, or the selectmen of a town, or persons authorized by them, respectively, may, upon the application of any person, issue a license to such person to carry a loaded pistol or revolver in this Commonwealth, if it appears that the applicant has good reason to fear an injury to his person or property, and that he is a suitable person to be so licensed.
Act of Mar. 16, 1906, ch. 172, § 1, 1906 Mass. Acts 150, 150. Although it was drafted in fairly broad terms, the Act clearly set forth two prerequisites to obtaining a license to carry firearms in the Commonwealth, the most relevant of which required applicants to be “suitable person[s] to be so licensed.” Id. (emphasis added). While the Act failed to list with specificity the traits that would qualify a person to be “suitable” to carry firearms, the use of such a word suggests that the General Court may in fact have been informed by a desire to keep potentially dangerous weapons out of reckless hands.
In 1925, the General Court clarified and further limited the classes of persons to whom a license to carry may be granted, see Act of Apr. 29, 1925, ch. 284, sec. 4, § 131, 1925 Mass. Acts 323, 324 (prohibiting the issuance of a license to carry to, inter alia, “[any] unnaturalized person, [and] [any] person who has been convicted of a felony or of the unlawful use or sale of drugs”), adopting for the first time an age-based restriction that proscribed “[any] minor other than one fifteen years of age or over in the employ of a bank, public utility corporation or business of a similar nature whose application is endorsed by his employer” from receiving a license to carry, id. The General Court raised the minimum restricted age to eighteen in 1957 and did away with the earlier busi
The amendments of 1998 — known collectively and colloquially as the Gun Control Act of 1998 (“Gun Control Act”) — were part of a larger effort to overhaul the existing firearms regulatory regime and were described by contemporaneous sources as implementing some of the most stringent gun laws in the nation at that time. See, e.g., Hillary Chabot, Gun Law Gets a Bit Tougher Today, Bos. Globe, Oct. 21, 1998, at B4. Among the many changes made was an elevation in the age of licensure for the carrying of firearms from eighteen to twenty-one. Act of July 23, 1998, ch. 180, sec. 41, § 131(d)(iv), 1998 Mass. Acts 357, 375 (codified at Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140, § 131(d)(iv)). But the twenty-one-and-over restriction pertaining to the license to carry was not the only such limitation introduced by the Gun Control Act. Indeed, the General Court included within the Act provisions banning the sale of large-capacity rifles, shotguns, firearms, and feeding devices, as well as the sale of any ammunition or ammunition feeding devices, to individuals under the age of twenty-one. Id. sec. 45, § 131E(a)-(b), at 381-82 (codified at Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 140, § 131E(a)-(b)). The breadth of regulatory change attending the passage of the Gun Control Act, as well as the introduction and progressive raising of age-based restrictions over the course of the past century, provides sufficient evidence that the General Court sought to achieve an important governmental objective — namely, the assurance of public safety.
Collected data on national gun violence across age groups only further substantiate this inference and demonstrate that the age-based restriction at issue here is substantially related to the achievement of the General Court’s aforementioned objective. A 1999 report produced jointly by the Departments of Justice and the Treasury found that 24% of all gun homicides that took place in 1997 were committed by eighteen- to twenty-year-olds and that, among individuals ages ten through eighty, “18, 19 and 20 year olds ranked first, second, and third in the number of gun homicides committed” that same year. U.S. Dep’t of the Treasury & U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Gun Crime in the Age Group 18-20, at 2 (1999), available at http:// permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps20136/report. pdf; see also id. at 8 fig.l. The report further stated that nearly three-quarters of the homicides committed by people between the ages of eighteen and twenty involved the use of firearms. Id. at 2. These statistics were in line with a decade-long trend of climbing gun use within the nation’s young adult population. Id.
In addition, a recent study conducted by the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Criminal Justice Information Services Division confirms that young adults between the ages of eighteen and twenty make up a disproportionate share of those arrested for gun-related and violent offenses. See U.S. Dep’t of Justice et al., Crime in the United States 2011 tbl.38 (2011), available at
Accordingly, this Court holds that the prohibition on eighteen- to twenty-yearolds found within Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 131(d)(iv) aligns with the letter and spirit of the Second Amendment and passes intermediate scrutiny.
b. Equal Protection
Age is not considered a trait worthy of suspect classification under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Kimel v. Fla. Bd. of Regents,
Powell has submitted no evidence to suggest that Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 131(d)(iv) was the product of irrational whim, so he has failed to carry the burden required of him under existing Supreme Court law. Because this Court has already deemed the statute permissible under intermediate scrutiny, see supra section II.D.2.a.ii, by implication, it naturally passes the exceedingly low threshold of rational basis scrutiny.
For the foregoing reasons, Powell’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus, EOF No. 1, is DENIED.
SO ORDERED.
Notes
. Powell, in his petition for habeas, characterized his Fourteenth and Second Amendment claims as two separate grounds for relief. Pet. Relief Conviction Sentence Person State Custody (“Habeas Pet.”) 6, 9, ECF No. 1. Because both claims go to the constitutionality of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 278, section 7, however, this Court will address them concurrently.
. A fifth count, assault and battery on a police officer, in violation of Massachusetts General Laws chapter 265, section 13D, was dismissed by the court before trial at the request of the Commonwealth. Supplemental Answer 102.
. On September 30, 2011, after violating his probation, Powell was sentenced to an additional two years in prison and given fifty days credit in the South Bay House of Correction. Habeas Pet. 2.
. Notice of the manual filing of the supplemental answer was provided to the Court on June 1, 2012, but recorded in the district’s Case ManagemenpElectronic Case Filing system on June 4, 2012. Notice Manual Filing, ECF No. 11.
. At the time, Powell was eighteen years of age. Id. at 573 n. 2,
. The revolver, which was later determined to be loaded, was collected by Officer Roby. Id.
. The Supreme Judicial Court has since held that Jones’s reasoning regarding licenses to carry firearms applies equally to FID cards as well. See Commonwealth v. Colon,
. An indictment (which may take the form of a criminal complaint or other accusatory instrument) must, in its allegations, abide by the governing due-process principle set forth in Winship. See Apprendi v. New Jersey,
. Obviously, “the fact that the defendant has the better means of information, standing alone, [does not] justify the creation of such a presumption,” Tot,
. Indeed, Heller itself presumed as much with regard to the licensing scheme discussed in that case. See
. This Court notes the ostensible inconsistency of Heller with the Supreme Judicial Court’s position in Jones that "[t]he holding of a valid license brings the defendant within an exception to the general prohibition against carrying a firearm." 372 Mass, at 406,
. Although this Court need not decide whether the age-based restrictions in Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 129B(l)(v)-(vi) pass muster under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments, were it to do so, the Court would likely answer this question in the affirmative, given the discussion in section II.D.2, infra.
. Indeed, another court in this district recently ruled that the Second Amendment swept within its ambit aliens maintaining lawful permanent residency in the United States and, therefore, that a Massachusetts firearms regulation predicating firearm possession upon citizenship was unconstitutional as applied to such persons. Fletcher v. Haas,
. The Fifth Circuit was the first of the courts of appeals to wrestle with the constitutionality of an eighteen- to twenty-year-old firearms ban since the advent of Heller, recently holding in National Rifle Ass’n of America, Inc. v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives,
. Such regulations likely find their beginnings in the traditions of medieval England. See Patrick J. Charles, Essay, Scribble Scrabble, the Second Amendment, and Historical Guideposts: A Short Reply to Lawrence Rosenthal and loyce Lee Malcolm, 105 Nw. U.L.R. 1821, 1822-23 (2011) (detailing various limi
. What is more, Congress even once considered enacting a bill that would raise the age of eligibility for possessing a handgun to twenty-one, see Youth Gun Crime Enforcement Act of 1999, H.R. 1768, 106th Cong. § 201 (1999), but for reasons unknown to this Court, the effort was abandoned on the floor of the House of Representatives.
. The foregoing survey of classification-based restrictions suffices to satisfy the first prong of the analytical framework employed by the Court. Nevertheless, for Powell’s edification, the Court will address the four primary arguments Powell puts forth in support of his proposition that the right to keep and bear arms must extend to those between the ages of eighteen and twenty.
First, Powell argues that eighteen- to twenty-year-olds ought be permitted to possess and carry firearms by virtue of the fact that they are legally compelled to do so when country so demands. Pet’r’s Mem. 27-29. For proof, Powell makes reference to the Militia Act of 1792 (“Militia Act”), ch. 33, 1 Stat. 271, which required in relevant part that "each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective states, resident therein, who is or shall be of the age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years ... shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia” and that "every citizen so enrolled
Second, Powell contends that ”[t]he clear line of eighteen as the age of majority applies equally to the exercise of Second Amendment rights.” Pet'r's Mem. 30; see also id. at 28-29 (citing various contexts in which eighteen is deemed the age of majority). It is true that eighteen-year-olds enjoy a host of privileges and obligations under both federal and Massachusetts law, not the least of which pertain to marriage, see, e.g., Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 207, §§ 7, 24-25 (setting the minimum marriageable age at eighteen years, with certain exceptions made for qualifying minors), military service, see, e.g., Selective Service Act of 1948, ch. 625, § 3, 62 Stat. 604, 605 (codified as amended at 50 U.S.C.App. § 453(a)) (compelling "every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States, ... between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six” to register for the Selective Service System), jury service, see, e.g., Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 234A, §§ 3-4 (requiring Massachusetts residents between the ages of eighteen and sixty-nine to sit on a jury when called by the Commonwealth to do so), and voting, see, e.g., U.S. Const, amend. XXVI, § 1 ("The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of age.”). Simply attaining the age of eighteen, however, does not carry with it the concomitant right to keep and bear arms. For one thing, the legislative designation of an age of majority simply endows those who have reached that age with "a status, not a fixed or vested right.” National Rifle Ass’n,
Third, Powell complains that, because Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 131(d)(iv) prohibits eighteen- to twenty-yearolds from receiving a license to carry a firearm, it constitutes a blanket ban on gun ownership for an entire class of persons. See Pet’r’s Mem. 32. A revisitation of Heller proves the absurdity of this allegation. In Heller, the Supreme Court found the law under consideration unconstitutional because it "totally ban[ned] handgun possession in the home ... [and] require[d] that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock at all times.”
Finally, Powell argues that the twenty-one- and-over limitation in Massachusetts General Laws chapter 140, section 131(d)(iv) is invalid because it was first introduced in 1998, Pet'r's Mem. 37, which is far too recent for the statute to qualify as one of the “longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms” that the Heller Court regarded as presumptively valid.
. The General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the formal name given to the Commonwealth’s highest legislative body.
. Just five years after its enactment, the Act was modified slightly, with only the word “loaded” stricken from the existing text. See Act of June 14, 1911, ch. 548, sec. 1, § 1, 1911 Mass. Acts 568, 568. Though hardly constituting a change in form, this minor amendment marked a notable change in substance, as it illuminated what appears to have been the General Court's desire to eliminate the largely meaningless distinction between firearms that were immediately dischargeable and those that were not.
. Certain members of the academy, however, find dubious the notion that a public-safety rationale can form the basis for prohibiting eighteen- to twenty-year-olds from possessing firearms. See Eugene Volokh, Implementing the Right to Keep and Bear Arms for Self-Defense: An Analytical Framework and a Research Agenda, 56 UCLA L. Rev. 1443, 1511— 13 (2009).
. This Court acknowledges the likelihood that not all of these crimes were committed with firearms. In fact, in 2009, only 22% of all violent incidents involved weapons at all. Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Criminal Victimization, 2009, at 8 tbl.9. (2010), available at http://bjs.ojp.usdoj. gov/content/pub/pdf/cv09.pdf. That said, of the crimes "that were committed with weapons, more than 36% of them involved a firearm, which makes it the most popular instrument among weapon-toting violent criminals. See id.
. The population figures used to calculate this statistic come from 2009, not from 2011.