Massachusetts highest court on Tuesday found constitutional a state statute that withholds carry licenses for handguns and high-capacity guns from anyone under age 21. The decision arose from the conviction of 20-year-old Mikai Thomson, arrested in December 2021 after he fled a red-light stop as a passenger and discarded a semiautomatic handgun; he faced charges solely for possessing the weapon without a license.

Thomson never sought a permit and attacked the age cutoff as an unconstitutional limit on adult rights. Two justices dissented in a lengthy opinion, urging remand for extra expert evidence and citing three federal appeals rulings that had voided similar 18-to-21 carry bans.