DOJ declares handgun sales ban for under-21s unconstitutional

For more than fifty years, a federal law has stood between licensed gun dealers and the youngest adults in America, prohibiting handgun sales to those under 21. Now the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel has declared that prohibition constitutionally untenable, arguing that a society which trusts 18-year-olds to vote, serve in uniform, and face execution cannot coherently deny them the right to purchase a handgun. The opinion carries no binding force, but in practice it may quietly hollow out a law that Congress has never repealed, leaving its future to courts and legislators who hav