The Supreme Judicial Court ruled on October 20, 2026 that Massachusetts may keep people under 21 from getting a license to carry a firearm. In Commonwealth v. Thomson, SJC-13856, the court rejected a Second Amendment challenge from a man who was 20 when police say he threw away a loaded handgun while running from a traffic stop. The vote was 5 to 2. The majority found the age limit consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of keeping guns from young people outside supervised settings. Two justices would have sent the case back for more historical evidence before deciding.
The ruling lands two weeks before voters decide Question 9, the referendum on the state’s 2024 gun law. Here is what the court decided, what it did not, and how it fits with the ballot question.
The case
According to the opinion, written by Justice Wolohojian:
- In December 2021, a police officer stopped a car that ran a red light. The defendant, Mikai Thomson, was in the front passenger seat.
- When the officer asked whether anyone had a weapon, Thomson did not answer and was asked to step out. He pushed the officer, ran, and discarded a loaded nine millimeter semiautomatic handgun.
- He was convicted in the Boston Municipal Court of carrying a firearm without a license under G.L. c. 269, § 10(a).
- He had never held or applied for a license to carry. He was 20, and the licensing statute “did not (and still does not) permit persons under twenty-one years of age to obtain a license to carry,” the court wrote.
The SJC moved the appeal from the Appeals Court on its own initiative.
What the court decided
- No as-applied challenge without applying. The court repeated its rule that “standing to bring an as-applied challenge to the Commonwealth’s firearm licensing scheme requires having applied for (and been denied) a license.” Thomson had never applied, so he could not argue the law was unconstitutional as applied to him.
- A facial challenge was allowed, and it failed. Thomson could still argue that the age limit is unconstitutional in all its applications. The court agreed that a 20-year-old carrying a handgun is conduct covered by the Second Amendment’s text. Under the test in New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, 597 U.S. 1 (2022), that put the burden on the Commonwealth to show the restriction fits the nation’s historical tradition.
- The history. The court relied on founding-era militia laws and the common-law treatment of minors. Under those laws, young men were supplied with guns by responsible adults for supervised militia service rather than owning them on their own. The court adopted the historical survey in the Eleventh Circuit’s en banc decision in National Rifle Ass’n v. Bondi (2025) and added Massachusetts history. It concluded that “restriction of firearm possession by those deemed too young to handle them safely outside of supervised settings is consistent with the nation’s regulatory tradition.”
- A graduated scheme. The court described Massachusetts law as “a licensing scheme that gives progressively greater unsupervised access to the possession and use of firearms by young people as they mature in age.” At 15, a young person may get a firearm identification (FID) card with a parent’s certificate. At 18, they may get one without it. At 21, they may apply for a license to carry. An FID card allows possession of a non-large-capacity rifle or shotgun.
The conviction was affirmed.
The dissent
Justice Kafker, joined by Justice Wendlandt, concurred in part and dissented in part. He agreed that Thomson could bring a facial challenge, but objected to how the majority found the history. “I believe further briefing and expert historical analysis are required to draw the appropriate analogy reliably and correctly,” he wrote. He said that because of the court’s approach, “the first time the defendant will see much of the history undergirding the court’s legal conclusion will be when the court’s opinion issues.” He would have sent the case back to the Boston Municipal Court for that development.
A split among federal courts
The opinions describe a divided national picture on gun rules for 18- to 20-year-olds:
- Struck down. The Fifth Circuit held unconstitutional a federal ban on handgun purchases by 18- to 20-year-olds, in Reese v. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, 127 F.4th 583 (5th Cir. 2025). The Eighth Circuit struck down Minnesota’s age-21 limit on carry permits as applied to 18- to 20-year-olds, in Worth v. Jacobson, 108 F.4th 677 (8th Cir. 2024). The Third Circuit struck down a Pennsylvania rule barring 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying guns outside the home during a state of emergency.
- Upheld. The Eleventh Circuit, sitting en banc, upheld Florida’s restriction on gun sales to people under 21 in Bondi. The dissent noted that Thomson had distinguished the decisions upholding limits as cases about sales, arguing that “the only Federal appellate court decisions on possession came out the other way.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review several of these cases, the SJC noted. Because Thomson rests on the federal Second Amendment, he could ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review it.
What it means for Question 9
Question 9 asks whether to keep Chapter 135 of the Acts of 2024, the gun law passed in July 2024. A yes vote keeps the law and a no vote repeals it. The Boston Globe has reported that the 2024 law raised the minimum age to buy semiautomatic rifles and shotguns from 18 to 21.
Thomson concerned a different rule: the age limit for a license to carry. That rule predates the 2024 law. The court cited it as it appeared in 2014 and as rewritten in Chapter 135. Its reasoning, that the Commonwealth may tie gun access to age and supervision, may matter in any future challenge to the 2024 age rules, but the court was not asked to decide those rules. The case involved conduct from 2021, and the court applied the statutes in effect then.
Polls released this week show Question 9’s yes side ahead. The Suffolk University/Boston Globe poll found 57.2 percent yes and 31.4 percent no. Both polls are compared here.
Frequently asked questions
Can you get a license to carry a gun in Massachusetts at 18?
No. Massachusetts law does not allow a license to carry before age 21. An 18-year-old may obtain a firearm identification card, which allows possession of a non-large-capacity rifle or shotgun, and someone 15 to 17 may obtain one with a parent’s certificate. The SJC upheld the age-21 rule in Commonwealth v. Thomson on October 20, 2026.
Did the SJC rule on Question 9?
No. The case concerned the age-21 requirement for a license to carry, which existed before the 2024 law that Question 9 asks voters to keep or repeal. The court did not decide the 2024 law’s separate age rules for semiautomatic rifles and shotguns.
Why couldn’t the defendant argue the law was unconstitutional as applied to him?
Under SJC precedent, a person must apply for and be denied a license before bringing an as-applied challenge to the licensing scheme. Thomson never applied, so the court considered only his facial challenge.
What was the vote in Commonwealth v. Thomson?
Five to two. Justice Wolohojian wrote for the court. Justice Kafker, joined by Justice Wendlandt, would have sent the case back for further historical briefing and expert evidence.
Sources: Commonwealth v. Thomson, SJC-13856 (Mass. Oct. 20, 2026), majority and dissenting opinions read in full; full text. Bruen, Reese and Worth citations confirmed on CourtListener; Bondi and the Third Circuit decision as described in the SJC’s opinions. The Boston Globe, October 20, 2026; Suffolk University Political Research Center marginals, October 20, 2026. General information, not legal advice.