18 U.S.C. § 922(x)(2) bans the simple possession of a handgun by any juvenile. Does Congress have this authority? The First Circuit said yes yesterday in U.S. v. Rene E., No. 08-1974. The court rejected a Heller-based Second Amendment attack and also reaffirmed its earlier rejection of a Lopez-based challenge that this law does not come within the power of Congress under the Commerce Clause. Personally, I'd like to see the Commerce Clause challenge go up to the Supreme Court. The peoples of Arkansas and Massachusetts should be able to come to different conclusions regarding whether 17-year-olds can possess handguns.

Perhaps we should also have a limit on the length of statutes so that none will ever need a subdivision (x).