DOJ Says Under-21 Handgun Ban Unconstitutional

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The DOJ's own lawyers just told the enforcement arm of the federal government that a law it's been using to threaten gun dealers is unconstitutional. That's worth sitting with for a second.

"The statutes 'may not be enforced to impose criminal penalties on dealers' who sell handguns to otherwise law-abiding adults between 18 and 20."

Key word there is "may not be enforced" — not "is repealed." The law is still on the books, ATF hasn't updated its guidance to FFLs, and a dealer who acts on this opinion before that guidance drops is still gambling with a federal felony charge. The guy behind the counter at your LGS isn't going to be the test case.

"Roughly 249 of more than 250 colonial and early state militia laws required militia service — and self-supplied muskets — from men 18 to 20."

The Bruen text-and-history standard cuts both ways depending on who's doing the research — but when your own legal opponents dig into the historical record and come up empty on a disarmament tradition, that's about as clean as this argument gets. The founding generation wasn't restricting 19-year-olds, it was handing them muskets and telling them to show up ready.

The Michigan situation buried in here is the part that should bother people most. A 19-year-old stops an active shooter at a mall and gets prosecuted for it afterward because of exactly these restrictions. That's not a hypothetical — that happened.

Has anyone here dealt with this age bracket in a practical context — training a kid who just turned 18, trying to help them figure out their carry options, or working behind the counter when this comes up?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett