One of the dumber pieces of public policy in our nation these days (and it's up against some pretty stiff competition) is the graduated age of majority. Examples abound, such as: If you are ages 18-20, you can sign a contract, get married, join the armed services, make informed consent decisions about your medical care, and you can vote — but the government doesn't consider you responsible enough to drink a beer or buy a handgun.
That second part of this lunacy, though, may be changing. The Justice Department, in a opinion released Friday, has determined that this age-related ban on people who are otherwise functional adults is inconsistent with the Second Amendment.
Today, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel released a legal opinion concluding that the federal prohibition may not be enforced against licensed dealers selling handguns to otherwise law-abiding adults ages 18 to 20 consistent with the Second Amendment.
The Office of Legal Counsel’s new opinion explains that federal statutes 18 U.S.C. § 922(b)(1) and (c)(1) are inconsistent with the Second Amendment as interpreted by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller, New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. Bruen, and subsequent decisions including Wolford v. Lopez. These statutes generally prohibit federally licensed dealers from selling handguns or handgun ammunition to individuals under 21.
Note that the OLC opinion directly addresses the federal prohibition; state age restrictions are a separate matter and remain subject to their own constitutional challenges.
In the press release, the DOJ renders some language that seems pretty obvious to most of us — that 18- to 20-year-olds are "the people" described in the Constitution.
The Office of Legal Counsel determined that 18 to 20-year-olds are among “the people” protected by the Second Amendment. “Eighteen-year-olds may vote, serve on juries, be drafted, and face adult criminal penalties, including capital punishment,” said Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. "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.”
X was quick to spread the news:
🔥Hot off the presses: Does the Second Amendment allow States to prohibit some young adults from owning guns? No, explains @TheJusticeDept OLC. 18-21 year olds may lawfully buy handguns under Bruen. Following the lead of highly respected Judge Benton who found the same! pic.twitter.com/aN9mzEgBjj
— Eric W. (@EWess92) September 18, 2026
While limited, this is an unalloyed good thing. What's less clear is its permanence; a DOJ under a Democrat administration is just as able to reverse this finding, and almost certainly will. There have been legal challenges to this age restriction in the past, but at the moment the Supreme Court has not unambiguously weighed in on the matter.
At least for now, though, an 18-year-old, who we will allow to join the Army, handle automatic weapons, and to yank the lanyard on a howitzer or handle the controls of a tank's 120mm main gun, can buy a .22 pistol for target practice. That's a win for young adults and a win for the Second Amendment, which lays out the primary guideline for issues such as this in very plain language: "...shall not be infringed."
We'll have to keep working on the "drink a beer" angle.
You can read the entire opinion here.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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