On September 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel released a legal opinion claiming that the life-saving federal law prohibiting licensed gun dealers from selling handguns to people under the age of 21 is unconstitutional and may not be enforced. The opinion undercuts the federal Gun Control Act of 1968, which established such age restrictions, and could lead to federal prosecutors dropping criminal cases against those who sell handguns to 18- to 20-year-olds in violation of federal law.
Not only are guns the leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 18 and 20, but this demographic also commits gun homicides at triple the rate of people over the age of 21. The firearm suicide rate for this group has also increased by 11 percent over the last decade.
The opinion is the latest effort by the Trump administration to gut critical gun safety laws and regulations. Earlier this year, the Department of Justice issued a legal opinion claiming that the 99-year-old federal ban on mailing handguns is unconstitutional, and just last month, refused to defend the National Firearms Act of 1934 in court, allowing unregistered silencer sales to proceed for the first time in 92 years. CBS News recently reported that President Trump personally ordered the Department to abandon an appeal in that case.
Notably, during his first term, Trump said that he supported proposals to lift the minimum age to purchase a gun to 21 in the aftermath of the Parkland mass shooting. Currently, federal law allows licensed dealers to sell rifles, shotguns, and their associated ammunition to 18-year-olds but limits sales of handguns by dealers to individuals 21 and older.
The Department of Justice’s Opinion
In its opinion, the Department of Justice uses recent Supreme Court rulings, particularly the Bruen decision, to argue that federal law “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,” noting that 18-year-olds can vote, serve as jurors, and enlist in the U.S. military.
But the opinion fails to mention that handguns are used to commit more crimes than other types of firearms. Additionally, in the military, handguns are only issued to certain personnel; they are not broadly distributed like rifles, which 18-year-old civilians can purchase from dealers under federal law.
The opinion only offers one example of a person allegedly “burdened” by current federal handgun restrictions: an 18-year-old who “represented the United States at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, shooting skeet” — a sport strictly involving shotguns, not handguns. According to the opinion, “due to statutes predicated on concerns over an eighteen-year-old’s ability to handle a pistol as a responsible adult, it would have been a federal felony if a licensed dealer had sold her such a firearm before she left or after she returned to her studies at the University of Texas at Arlington.”
While the opinion is not legally binding, as CBS News noted, “it is likely to lead federal prosecutors across the country to refrain from pursuing felony charges against licensed firearms dealers who are suspected of knowingly selling handguns to young adults under the age of 21.”
Gun Groups Praise the Opinion
In response to the Department of Justice’s announcement, the Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC), an extreme gun group backed by gun companies that has filed several lawsuits challenging state and federal laws setting the minimum age to purchase and/or carry a handgun at 21, told Axios that the “federal government cannot justify denying [18- to 20-year-olds] access to handguns based solely on age.” The group reportedly agreed with the opinion’s rationale but added that it “wants the DOJ to go further, including covering handgun ammunition.”
The FPC also called Governor Kathy Hochul a “tyrannical asshat” for reminding people that New York state law requires handgun buyers to be at least 21 years old and saying, “No teenager should be able to walk into a gun store and buy a handgun.”
Mark Oliva, a spokesperson for the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade association, brought religion into the conversation, sharing a link to the story on X with the caption, “You are fully vested in all your rights when you are an adult at 18. Your rights. Endowed by your Creator.”
Gun Owners of America, another industry-backed gun group, claimed on X that federal law had “infringed” upon 13.3 million young adults and said the Department of Justice’s opinion “may be the largest restoration of the fundamental right to keep and bear arms in U.S. history.” The tweet underscores how the gun industry and gun groups could benefit from an influx of millions of customers and supporters, respectively.
In response to former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords calling the opinion “very bad,” the National Association for Gun Rights, another gun group, said, “They are adults. Until that changes, you can sit on it and spin.”
The response is particularly depraved given that Representative Giffords was severely wounded by a 22-year-old gunman armed with a 9mm Glock pistol during an assassination attempt at a Safeway in Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011. Twelve others were wounded in the mass shooting, and six people were killed.