Ban on selling handguns to young adults under 21 is unconstitutional, Justice Department says

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal law banning licensed firearms dealers from selling handguns to young adults under age 21 is unconstitutional and can’t be enforced, the Justice Department said in a legal opinion released Friday.

The opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel says the law aimed at making it harder for 18- to 20-year-olds to get handguns violates the Second Amendment. The opinion indicates the Trump administration will not defend or prosecute cases under the law that has been the subject of competing court rulings in the wake of a landmark Supreme Court decision that transformed the legal landscape around firearms.

“Eighteen-year-olds may vote, serve on juries, be drafted, and face adult criminal penalties, including capital punishment,” Assistant Attorney General Elliot Gaiser, who leads the Office of Legal Counsel, said in a statement. “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.”

Under the federal law, people must be 21 to purchase a handgun from a licensed federal firearms dealer, though 18- to 20-year-olds can buy handguns from private sellers. There is an 18-year-old minimum for purchases of long guns from licensed dealers.

Federal appeals courts have split on whether handgun age limits are constitutional, and the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to weigh in on the federal law in the wake of the 2022 landmark decision that changed the test used to evaluate challenges to firearm restrictions.

It’s the latest victory for gun rights groups under the second Trump administration, which has rolled back some firearms regulations and created a new pathway for people who’ve been barred from owning firearms because of criminal convictions to apply to have their gun rights reinstated.

Gun control groups called the Justice Department’s opinion misguided and dangerous.

“Federal prosecutors nationwide will stop holding illegal sellers of handguns to 18- to 20-year-olds accountable if they know the DOJ has pulled the rug out from under them,” Eric Tirschwell, executive director of Everytown Law, said in an emailed statement. “Abandoning protections that target the highest-risk age group for handgun violence isn’t just an unconscionable surrender of public safety — it is a dangerous dereliction of duty.”