The Department of Justice has concluded that the federal prohibition on handgun sales to adults aged 18 through 20 is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, according to an announcement the agency posted Friday on X.
The determination stems from a legal analysis by the department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which found that 18-to-20-year-olds fall within the class of “the people” whose right to keep and bear arms is shielded by the Second Amendment.
Breitbart News reported on the announcement.
The Legal Reasoning
In a press release accompanying the announcement, Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, who heads the Office of Legal Counsel, laid out the constitutional logic behind the finding.
“Eighteen-year-olds may vote, serve on juries, be drafted, and face adult criminal penalties, including capital punishment,” Gaiser said, according to the DOJ release. “The Constitution protects the people’s right to keep and bear arms. The Department of Justice may not constitutionally seek to impose criminal penalties on dealers who sell handguns to law-abiding adults who, in nearly every other relevant respect, are members of the political community.”
The opinion’s operative conclusion is that statutes generally barring federally licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns or handgun ammunition to individuals under 21 cannot be used to bring criminal charges against dealers who sell to that age group.
“The Office of Legal Counsel concludes that…[statutes that generally prohibit federally licensed dealers from selling handguns or handgun ammunition to individuals under 21] may not be enforced to impose criminal penalties on dealers who sell handguns to a class of law-abiding adults who, in nearly every other relevant respect, are members of the political community,” the release states.
The opinion distinguishes between the dealers who would face liability and the buyers themselves, framing the affected group as law-abiding adults who are not otherwise barred from possessing firearms. The conclusion rests on the idea that the same 18-to-20-year-olds who are treated as full participants in civic and political life — through voting, jury service, conscription eligibility, and exposure to the adult criminal justice system — cannot simultaneously be excluded from the Second Amendment’s protections.
What the Finding Means in Practice
The Office of Legal Counsel’s conclusions carry weight as binding internal legal advice for executive branch agencies, which is why the DOJ’s public announcement that the ban “cannot be enforced” signals a shift in how federal prosecutors and regulators would treat handgun transfers involving 18-to-20-year-old buyers going forward.
The announcement did not detail any specific enforcement actions that have been dropped or any pending cases affected by the determination. It also did not address how the finding interacts with state-level restrictions that impose their own age minimums for handgun purchases, which operate separately from the federal statutes at issue.
The federal provisions in question apply to federally licensed dealers and generally prohibit them from selling handguns or handgun ammunition to individuals under 21. Under the Office of Legal Counsel’s reading, those statutes remain on the books but may not be turned into criminal penalties against dealers who sell to 18-to-20-year-old law-abiding adults.
Gun rights advocates have long argued that the age-based federal restriction conflicts with the Supreme Court’s Second Amendment jurisprudence, particularly the emphasis in recent rulings on the text, history, and tradition of firearms regulation. The DOJ’s conclusion adopts a version of that argument, focusing on the historical and civic status of 18-to-20-year-olds rather than on the mechanics of the handgun market.
For now, the practical effect of Friday’s announcement will depend on how federal prosecutors and agencies apply the Office of Legal Counsel’s reasoning in future cases, and on whether courts weighing challenges to the age restriction reach similar conclusions.
Source: www.breitbart.com — https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2026/09/18/doj-ban-on-handgun-sales-to-18-through-20-year-olds-unconstitutional-cannot-be-enforced/