DOJ Won't Enforce Handgun Ban on Young Adults
DOJ Won't Enforce Handgun Ban on Young Adults
The News
The Justice Department said Friday that the federal ban on licensed dealers selling handguns to adults under 21 is unconstitutional and can no longer be enforced.
The conclusion came in an opinion from DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel covering 18 U.S.C. Sections 922(b)(1) and (c)(1), the provisions that have barred federally licensed dealers from selling handguns to 18- to 20-year-olds since the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968.
The opinion runs 49 pages. It was dated Thursday and released Friday.
What Changes
Licensed dealers in any state may now sell handguns to law-abiding 18- to 20-year-olds without risk of federal prosecution. State laws restricting those sales are unaffected.
The opinion does not strike down the statute. Only the executive branch's enforcement posture changes; Congress would have to repeal or amend the law to change it outright.
Timeline
The Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act puts in place the provisions barring licensed dealers from selling handguns to adults under 21.
Federal appeals courts split on age-based handgun restrictions. The 3rd, 5th and 8th circuits struck down similar limits; the 4th, 10th and 11th circuits upheld them.
The Supreme Court declines to resolve the circuit split.
The Office of Legal Counsel opinion is dated.
DOJ releases the 49-page opinion, saying the ban is unconstitutional and cannot be criminally enforced.
Reactions
The OLC opinion argued the law strips legal adults of a core right. "The provision prevents young adults, who are members of 'the people' to whom the Second Amendment applies, from owning 'arms' in common use for self-defense," the opinion read, according to Just the News.
"The Constitution protects the people's right to keep and bear arms," an assistant attorney general said, per The Epoch Times.
Gun-rights outlets on the right treated the move as a long-overdue correction. Bearing Arms framed it as recognition that young adults have a Second Amendment right to buy handguns, and RedState called the ban one of the dumber pieces of standing public policy.
The underlying dispute, as the coverage lays it out, is whether halting enforcement restores a constitutional right or removes a public-safety guardrail for a high-risk age group.
What's Next
The opinion signals DOJ may side with plaintiffs challenging age restrictions in ongoing litigation.
The circuit split remains unresolved, and the Supreme Court could be asked again now that the executive branch has changed its enforcement position.
Watch whether licensed dealers begin selling handguns to 18- to 20-year-olds in states with no state-law bar of their own.
More
Under existing federal rules, 18-year-olds could already buy long guns from licensed dealers and handguns from private sellers. The provisions addressed by the opinion applied to purchases from federally licensed dealers.
Poll
Should 18- to 20-year-olds be allowed to buy handguns from licensed dealers?
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