President Trump’s Justice Department has adopted a new federal enforcement position on handgun sales to otherwise law-abiding adults between the ages of 18 and 20.

The Department of Justice announced Friday that its Office of Legal Counsel concluded the federal restrictions in 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) cannot constitutionally be used to impose criminal penalties on federally licensed dealers who sell handguns to that group.

The change is significant, but its scope is specific: it concerns federal criminal enforcement against licensed dealers selling handguns or handgun ammunition to lawful adults ages 18 to 20. It is not a repeal of every federal firearm rule, and it does not override separate state restrictions.

The Justice Department announced the opinion directly:

The Justice Department says the restrictions conflict with the Second Amendment under the Supreme Court’s modern firearms decisions. The department’s position is that 18-to-20-year-olds are part of “the people” protected by the amendment.

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The federal provisions generally barred licensed dealers from selling handguns or handgun ammunition to anyone under 21. They did not impose the same age threshold on dealer sales of rifles or shotguns.

DOJ says the handgun restriction burdens the ability of young adults to acquire a firearm commonly used for self-defense. That placed the burden on the government to identify a comparable historical tradition of regulation.

The department concluded that the historical record did not supply a sufficiently similar analogue. It emphasized that militia laws at the Founding commonly required service beginning at age 18 and often required those enrolled to furnish their own arms.

Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, who leads the Office of Legal Counsel, pointed to the other legal responsibilities held by adults in this age group.

He noted that 18-year-olds may vote, serve on juries, be drafted and face adult criminal penalties.

The full Office of Legal Counsel opinion says the restriction effectively excludes young adults from the primary commercial handgun market. It also explains that the law targets licensed dealers, who previously risked criminal penalties and loss of their federal licenses for violating the age restriction.

The provisions trace to the Gun Control Act of 1968. Congress said at the time that easier handgun access by juveniles and young people was linked to violent crime, and it established separate age thresholds for handguns and long guns.

OLC analyzed the restrictions under the Supreme Court’s text-and-history framework. It concluded that lawful young adults are covered by the Second Amendment’s reference to “the people” and that acquiring a handgun falls within the protected conduct at issue.

The opinion then examined Founding-era militia rules, age-of-majority law and later restrictions on sales to minors. It concluded that those historical rules differed in whom they covered, why they existed and how they operated.

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The Firearms Policy Coalition posted the opinion and highlighted the OLC’s central conclusion:

The legal landscape has not been uniform. The OLC opinion acknowledges that federal judges have divided over age-based firearm restrictions.

It cites decisions that invalidated the federal restriction or similar state limits, as well as decisions that upheld federal, Florida and Colorado age restrictions.

That distinction matters because the new opinion states the executive branch’s constitutional and enforcement position; it does not remove the statutory language from the U.S. Code. Congress has not repealed sections 922(b)(1) and (c)(1), and state laws may independently restrict handgun purchases by people under 21.

The opinion also identifies several rules it does not address. Those include the federal prohibition on handgun possession by people under 18, age-neutral qualifications on commercial sales, the enhanced investigative period for purchasers under 21 and the separate prohibited-person categories in section 922(g).

The change also drew a firsthand response from someone who said he had been affected by the restriction between ages 18 and 20:

For dealers and buyers, the practical effect will depend on federal implementation and the law of the state where a transaction occurs. All other applicable eligibility rules, background-check requirements and state restrictions remain relevant.

The immediate federal change is clear: DOJ says it will not seek criminal penalties under these two provisions against licensed dealers for handgun sales to otherwise law-abiding adults ages 18 to 20.

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at WLTReport. View the original article here.

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