Debate over whether to ban handgun sales to teens could soon head to the Supreme Court

In January, the right-leaning Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, struck down the federal government's decades-old ban on handgun purchases for 18- to 20-year-olds. That decision came after the 10th Circuit upheld the same prohibition in November. Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit is currently considering whether to uphold a Virginia district court judge's decision ending the age-limit ban.

"Whenever there's decisions that cross each other, you have a much better chance of getting a writ of certiorari at the U.S. Supreme Court," Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation, told Fox News Digital. 

"This issue is definitely making its way to the Supreme Court-and fast," said Pepperdine's Jacob Charles, a constitutional law professor with an expertise in Second Amendment issues. "This is a key federal law, and you just can't have that apply differently across the nation (at least for long)."

"The levels of scrutiny - rational basis, intermediate scrutiny, strict scrutiny - don't matter. What the Supreme Court's Bruen ruling said was, you have to look at the text and the history. That's what counts," said Gottlieb. "When the Bill of Rights was put together, there was nothing that prohibited 18-to 20-year-old young adults from being able to own or carry a firearm." 

Gottlieb and the Second Amendment Foundation have sued in several states to reverse their bans on hand gun sales to young adults under 21. 

"Our track record, at least, is mostly wins, and part of the logic on that is that there's nothing in under the Bruen decision at the Supreme Court, which makes them look at the text and history of the Second Amendment."