The Trump Justice Department announced on Friday, September 18, 2026, that a longstanding federal restriction blocking federally licensed gun dealers from selling handguns to law-abiding adults between the ages of 18 and 20 is unconstitutional and cannot be criminally enforced.
The opinion marks a significant shift in the federal government’s position on the gun rights of young adults.
Under 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(1) and (c)(1), federally licensed firearms dealers have generally been prohibited from selling handguns or handgun ammunition to anyone under the age of 21.
DOJ now says those provisions cannot constitutionally be used to impose criminal penalties on licensed dealers who sell handguns to otherwise lawful adults between 18 and 20.
In a 49-page opinion issued September 17, Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser determined that applying 18 U.S.C. §§ 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) to young adults violates the Second Amendment. Those provisions of the Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibit federally licensed dealers from selling handguns or handgun ammunition to anyone under 21.
The opinion’s conclusion is direct: The statutes “may not be enforced to impose criminal penalties on dealers” who sell handguns to otherwise law-abiding adults between 18 and 20.
That is a major constitutional admission from the federal government. As our friend Duncan Johnson, writing in Ammoland Shooting Sports news observed, “An American does not become one of ‘the people’ protected by the Bill of Rights on his 21st birthday.”
As Mr. Johnson noted, the OLC opinion, signed by Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser, applies the constitutional test established in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen and refined by subsequent Supreme Court decisions.
First, the government must determine whether the Second Amendment’s text covers the proposed conduct. The OLC concluded that it plainly does.
The OLC’s conclusion tracks the Fifth Circuit’s ruling in Reese v. ATF. The Fifth Circuit likewise held that 18-to-20-year-olds are among “the people” and that the government failed to identify a comparable Founding-era restriction.
Adults between 18 and 20 are members of “the people.” Handguns are protected “arms” and remain the most commonly selected firearms for personal defense. The right to keep and bear arms also necessarily includes the ability to acquire one. Congress cannot avoid the Second Amendment by criminalizing the seller instead of the buyer.
The opinion systematically rejects the historical arguments courts have used to preserve under-21-gun bans.
The most important is the common-law “infancy doctrine.” At the Founding, people under 21 were generally considered legal minors, and many of their contracts were voidable. Gun-control advocates have tried to transform that general rule of contract law into a historical tradition of firearm prohibition.
A federal judge recently used that theory to uphold Hawaii’s sweeping ban on firearm acquisition by adults under 21, noted Mr. Johnson in his article for Ammoland.
The OLC opinion explains why the analogy fails. The infancy doctrine protected dependent minors from unscrupulous merchants. It did not prohibit firearm purchases, did not criminalize merchants and did not prevent cash transactions. A minor could enter a contract and later choose to void it. Under the federal handgun ban, an FFL who completes the sale can face loss of his license and up to five years in prison.
The bottom line?
The Twenty-Sixth Amendment makes the government’s modern position on firearms ownership by under-21s even less defensible. At 18, an American may vote, serve on a jury, enter binding contracts, face adult criminal punishment and be required to register for the draft. The government cannot recognize someone as a full citizen whenever it demands responsibility from him, then revive childhood when he wants the means to defend himself.
The DOJ has now acknowledged the obvious: Adults between 18 and 20 are not partial citizens. They are part of “the people,” and the Second Amendment protects their right to acquire the quintessential weapon of self-defense.
