The Justice Department released a new opinion Friday saying federal laws prohibiting the sale of handguns to adults under age 21 can’t be squared with the Constitution and can no longer be enforced.
The DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, which serves as the in-house lawyer for the federal bureaucracy, said the Second Amendment guarantees the right to bear arms to “the people,” and that must include those ages 18 to 20.
“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,” assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser said.
Two sections of federal law bar firearms dealers from selling handguns to the young adults.
Mr. Gaiser said neither can be enforced any longer.
The move drew an outcry from gun control advocates who said the decision would put guns in the hands of more dangerous people.
“People ages 18 to 20 are responsible for a disproportionate share of school shootings, public mass shootings and gun homicides overall. There is a reason minimum age laws exist,” said Emma Brown, executive director of Giffords, a gun control group.
The DOJ decision applies to federal prosecutions.
Some states have their own laws prohibiting sales to young adults.
At issue is whether firearms can be subject to a different age standard than the 18-year-old line that generally delineates adulthood.
Some federal courts have upheld the higher age restriction, while others have ruled against it.
But Mr. Gaiser said recent Supreme Court rulings have firmly established the personal right to bear arms for self-defense.
One of those, the Heller decision, even called handguns the “quintessential self-defense weapon.”
And a later ruling, the Bruen decision, said only restrictions that would have been countenanced by America’s founding era can survive.
Some federal judges have pointed out that those under 21 were considered minors at the founding.
Mr. Gaiser, though, said those 18 to 20 were mostly subject to compulsory service in the militia. That meant they were not only allowed to bear arms, but also required to serve — and to bring their own guns.
Besides, he said, the 26th Amendment establishing the national minimum voting age as 18 makes clear that the country now accepts those 18 to 20 as full adults entitled to constitutional rights.
He said comparisons to the legal age for drinking, at 21, fail because there is no constitutional right involved in alcohol.
Mr. Gaiser said his opinion doesn’t alter prohibitions on sales to or possession by those under 18, even though they might be considered part of “the people” under the Second Amendment.
He also said the young adults can still face an enhanced background check.
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