Seven months before a Broward judge boldly declared Florida’s age restriction on gun possession unconstitutional, a different Broward judge faced the same question in a similar case, argued by the same lawyer.
But unlike Broward Circuit Judge Frank Ledee, Judge Lorena Mastrarrigo found that the state law blocking adults ages 18-20 from carrying concealed weapons is legally sound, a reasonable application of the state’s ability to place reasonable restrictions to gun ownership and possession.
The conflict between the two rulings is enough to require the question to be decided by a higher court: Is the state allowed to bar legal adults from carrying concealed weapons on the basis of their age? Under current law, only adults ages 21 and over can carry unless they are law enforcement or military. Mastrarrigo relied on the state of the law at the time of her ruling in March when she decided Florida’s restriction is constitutional.
Until this year, legal precedent loosening carry restrictions said nothing “about who may lawfully possess a firearm or the requirements that must be met to buy a gun,” Mastrarrigo wrote in her decision, quoting Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. “Nor does it decide anything about the kinds of weapons that people may possess.”
Mastrarrigo rejected the defense argument in the case of Jaylen Eubanks, 20, who was arrested by Coral Springs Police in 2024 for possessing a concealed weapon. Eubanks, who is Black, told police that he showed the weapon when he was approached in a threatening manner by two white men in a car. Eubanks told police he thought the men were going to run him over, and he showed the weapon to let them know he was not going to be an easy target, according to the probable cause affidavit filed when he was arrested.
Eubanks pleaded no contest in May and was sentenced to two years’ probation, but his lawyer, Thomas Cottone, was not done arguing the issue.
Like Eubanks, Joel Andrew Walkes, 19, of Fort Lauderdale, was charged in March 2025 with carrying a concealed firearm. In his case, Walkes was not accused of displaying the weapon in any threatening manner. The Plantation Police officer who encountered Walkes was responding to a report of a disabled vehicle. The officer suspected Walkes was carrying a weapon when he saw a bulge in his waistband. Walkes admitted carrying the weapon.
Cottone was also Eubanks’ lawyer, and he filed a similar motion in front of Broward Circuit Judge Frank Ledee asking, again, that the law barring prohibiting concealed carry for adults from 18-20 is not constitutional.
Between the rulings in the Eubanks case and the Walkes case, Florida’s Supreme Court struck down the state law prohibiting open carry, one of the most significant gun rights ruling in years. Judge Ledee took note of the changing tide in gun laws and issued his ruling last month striking down the age restriction, a decision that, for now, applies only to Walkes’ case. Men and women over the age of 18 are allowed to smoke, vote and serve in the armed forces, Ledee ruled. The legal momentum is in favor of their right to carry a concealed weapon.
Public Defender Gordon Weekes said his office will continue to make similar arguments in similar cases, but his office had not decided whether to appeal the Eubanks case. Doing so would create a binding precedent in place of a conflict between courtrooms.
But with two judges in the same circuit issuing opposing rulings on the same question, the stage is set for a showdown at the Fourth District Court of Appeal — if prosecutors are willing to fight it.
The decision to appeal Ledee’s ruling would ultimately fall on Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, who has already directed prosecutors and law enforcement officers to stop going after open-carry violations. Uthmeier’s office did not return a call for comment on the issue.
Despite Florida’s history of being a gun-supporting climate, Florida’s GOP-dominated state Legislature took steps to restrict gun laws in the wake of the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland. Since the day the measure was signed into law, gun rights advocates have been pushing to unravel it, with considerable success.
Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaime died in the Stoneman Douglas shooting, said Ledee erred in not taking into account a federal court ruling from May upholding a ban on gun sales to anyone under 21. “There is nothing unconstitutional about this law,” Guttenberg said, criticizing Ledee’s decision as an “activist” ruling.
Bob Jarvis, law professor at Nova Southewastern University, said Ledee’s ruling only applies to the case before him, and he predicted the issue would be resolved through appeals or legislative action.
“I would not be surprised if in the next session the Florida Legislature doesn’t just take care of this by amending the statute to say, ‘clean it up.’ And then that’ll end all these lawsuits and possible lawsuits,” he said.
Second Amendment supporters praised Ledee’s ruling while recognizing it would not be the last word on the subject.
“Leaving unconstitutional laws on the books creates nothing but confusion,” said Sean Caranna, executive director of the advocacy group Florida Carry.
Luis Valdes, Florida director of Gun Owners of America, said the day of the ruling that allowing adults to carry a concealed weapon but depriving 18- to 20-year-olds of that right was “just hypocrisy.”
This report was supplemented by information from the Associated Press.
Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on Threads.net/@rafael.olmeda.