A clause in the new state gun reform law preventing 18- to 21-year-olds from carrying certain firearms has gun enthusiasts, including those in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, asking a rhetorical question: Is there an age requirement for the Bill of Rights?

“The question isn’t if it will get overturned [by the Supreme Judicial Court], the question is when it will get overturned,” said Leon “Lee” Laster, owner of the Western Massachusetts Training & Education Academy in Millers Falls. “It’s like they’re picking and choosing who they want to restrict.”

A coalition of industry groups, including the National Rifle Association and the Gun Owners’ Action League, filed a lawsuit in February over the firearm age restrictions.

“Adults between the ages of 18 and 20 are part of ‘the people,’ and there is no historical tradition of limiting the firearms rights of adults on account of their age,” the plaintiffs wrote in their complaint.

Though they might not be directly involved with the litigation, local experts have not been shy about expressing their dismay over what they view as an unconstitutional provision. The law prohibits anyone younger than 21 from purchasing, possessing or carrying handguns and semiautomatic rifles or shotguns.

“What purpose is that going to serve?” Laster asked.

The law allows for possession of long guns that are not semiautomatic.

Laster also mentioned long guns are used in the Olympics, which have no age minimum, and stripping an entire demographic of people of their right to possess a firearm will eliminate their ability to train.

In their complaint, the plaintiffs argued, “As for the types of firearms that Massachusetts forbids them from owning, much less carrying, there can be no dispute that they qualify as ‘arms’ within the ‘plain text’ meaning of the Second Amendment.”

In addition to a series of lawsuits, firearms owners are also hoping to undo the law by securing the support of voters. A group of Second Amendment supporters and gun owners known as the Civil Rights Coalition secured enough voter signatures to put a question on the 2026 ballot proposing to repeal the law.

Like Laster, Jack Shea, president of the 104-year-old Ashfield Rod & Gun Club, said he feels it makes little sense to have an age restriction on long guns in Massachusetts, as anyone in Vermont can obtain a hunting license with the presence of a parent or guardian. Those who are younger than 21 can purchase a firearm if they can produce to the seller a certificate of satisfactory completion of a Vermont hunter safety course or equivalent hunter safety course approved by the fish and wildlife commissioner. Also, there is no minimum age for hunting or firearm possession in New Hampshire.

Shea said making it illegal for those younger than 21 to carry certain firearms robs them of “years and years of exposure time and training time.”

“It’s basically shutting down the development of youth for hunting or recreational gun use,” he added.

That sentiment was shared by Malisa Younger, a certified firearms instructor and secretary of the Woodsman Rifle & Pistol Club in Athol.

“Taking long guns away from 18- to 21-year-olds is such a disservice to America, to our Second Amendment,” she said, adding that the nation’s mental health crisis “is where our bigger problem is.”

Younger, who started shooting at age 5, said gun possession is an inalienable right and the clause in the new state law is “just one more bite out of the Second Amendment.”

She, like Laster, said no one has more disdain for an irresponsible gun owner than a responsible one.

“We’re not going out rampaging and killing people,” Younger said.

Most opponents of this particular clause preventing 18- to 21-year-olds from carrying certain firearms are supportive of several of the new law’s provisions, including the prohibition of 3D-printed and unserialized “ghost guns.”

One supporter of the law in its entirety is Lori Streeter, Franklin County’s interim sheriff.

“I think it’s a responsible thing to do,” she said. “It’s a strong statement and a necessary statement, and I think Massachusetts is all the better for it.”

Streeter, who said she is not a hunter and owns no firearms, believes the clause is not an infringement on the Second Amendment because it prohibits people between 18 and 21 from owning only certain types of guns. She admitted, however, that hunters tend to be very responsible gun owners.

Susannah Whipps, a lifelong hunter who represents the 2nd Franklin District as the only unaffiliated member of the state House of Representatives, was one of the 33 “nays” in the House on a 124-33 vote, while the bill flew through the Senate by a tally of 35 to 5. She has said she was disappointed with the bill due to the prohibitions and barriers placed on out-of-state hunters, business owners who live outside of Massachusetts and seasonal residents.

“I’ve always been supportive of youth hunter education and as well as youth sport shooting. I have always considered hunting and sport shooting as great multi-generational activities,” she wrote in an email. “Teaching young people about gun safety, as well as conservation and thoughtful hunting technique, are key points to hunter education programs and they should be expanded, not eliminated.”

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120. Information from State House News Service was used in this report.