The federal judge presiding over a challenge to provisions of Pennsylvania’s Uniform Firearms Act that prohibits the issuance of concealed carry permits to adults under 21 years of age indicated Wednesday that she is close to deciding if and when a trial will be held.

The challenge was filed last November by two 19-year-old Pennsylvania women, Hannah Young of Blair County and Ariana Palmaccio of Luzerne County.

Both women are members of national organizations that support gun rights, the Firearms Coalition Inc. of Clark County, Nev., and the National Rifle Association of Fairfax, Va.

They are fighting three specific provisions of the Pennsylvania Law that they contend effectively bar their ability to carry firearms for their own protection.

The ban on the issuance of gun permits for adults under 21 years of age is unconstitutional under the Second and Fourteenth Amendments, they contended in a complaint filed last November with the federal District Court in Johns­town.

The lawsuit filed by Young and Palmaccio names as defendants the Commissioner of the Pennsylvania State Police, Col. Christopher Paris, who has the responsibility of enforcing the state’s gun laws, as well as Blair County Sheriff James Ott and Luzerne County Sheriff Brian Szumski, who are designated under the law to issue carry permits in their respective counties.

District Judge Stephanie L. Haines is presiding over the case.

Meanwhile, a similar case challenging Pennsylvania’s gun laws was the subject of a January hearing before the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, and a three-judge panel ruled, by a two-to-one margin, that a district judge in Allegheny County erred when he upheld the ban on gun rights to young adults.

The panel reversed the decision by the Allegheny County judge.

The decision was eventually upheld by the entire 3rd Circuit Court, sitting en banc.

The state police commissioner indicated he was considering an appeal of the 3rd Circuit decision in the case (Madison Lara v. Commissioner Pennsylvania State Police) to the Supreme Court.

The Johnstown case was paused until the Lara case was reviewed at the appeals court level, but since the January opinion in the Lara case, attorneys representing Young and Palmaccio have sought a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the carry ban.

In March, Pennsylvania Attorney General David W. Sunday, on behalf of the state police commissioner, opposed a preliminary injunction, questioning whether the two women have met the criteria for the issuance of an injunction, noting the plaintiffs cannot establish a likelihood of success on the merits of their case, and questioning if the women will suffer irreparable harm because “no constitutional violation has occurred.”

Also, the commissioner argues that an injunction would not be in the public’s best interest.

Haines, in a status conference Wednesday, stated that the request for an injunction and the actual trial of the case would be consolidated.

The parties told the judge they would like the case to be tried by the judge and not a jury, and both sides agreed a trial in the matter would be relatively short, limited to two or three days.

Haines stated she would soon be entering an order “moving this case along.”