>>Big difference here. You’re right to bear arms is spelled out in the Constitution. Alcohol and for that matter pot consumption is not a right recognized by the Constitution. Hence the Feds or States can outright ban either. We still have counties in some states that are dry counties. No sale or possession of alcohol.
As a feeble attempt at flame protection: I am against the law and hope the NRA wins, but all the legal scholars here need to keep a few points in mind:
At one point in time, someone must have decided that there is a Constitutional right to alcohol because they had to create an Amendment to begin Prohibition.
This law does not create any new infringement (other than the myriad of infringements that we accept already) because a person 18-21 can still keep and bear a long gun. They just can’t buy it.
For the “old enough to carry a gun for the Army” crowd: remember that older guy who was always with your squad and yelled a lot? The 18 year olds had supervision that came with their weapons.
Okay, I'm not a legal scholar but here's what I recall from my American History classes in college:
The Temperance Movement was adamant about making Prohibition permanent. Congress could have simply passed legislation prohibiting manufacture and sale of alcohol as some States and counties had done and it would have been banned.
The leaders of the Temperance Movement felt that this could be easily repealed with each new Congress and/or President so they sought a permanent solution: an amendment to the constitution. Much harder to repeal an amendment. In fact at the time I don't believe an amendment had ever been repealed but lots of different federal laws had been repealed. So after much arm twisting , corruption, and payoffs they got their amendment and figured that was the end of booze.
The Volstead Act, passed by congress, was legislation that simply dealt with the enforcement part of Prohibition.
I'll leave it up to real legal scholars here but I don't think you're going find a God given right in the Constitution that says you have right to alcohol.