Hochul Vows to Continue Denying Gun Rights to Adults Under 21

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is no friend to New York gun owners. The entire state is basically a no-go zone for gun rights, and that’s not how rights are supposed to work.

Now, in the span of a glorious week, adults under 21 can buy handguns. I’m not sure how long that will hold up, but for now, it’s kind of cool. Unless, of course, you live in New York.

It seems that Hochul had thoughts on the Trump administration’s plan.

Not in New York. No teenager should be able to walk into a gun store and buy a handgun.

Our laws don’t allow it and that’s not changing. https://t.co/2JYP5v59eS

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) September 19, 2026

Now, this is interesting. It’s not surprising, of course, but interesting.

It’s interesting because Hochul and other lawmakers in New York won’t hesitate to arrest a “teenager” as an adult for a wide variety of crimes and for the police to seek charges for adult crimes against people who are legal adults. The system treats adults under 21 as just that: adults.

Not “teenagers.”

We’ve all pointed out the voting thing, because that’s a pretty relevant parallel, but I think this is an important distinction, too.

If a 19-year-old buys a handgun in New York, assuming he’s prosecuted at all, what kind of charges will he face? Juvenile or adult? The answer, of course, is adult charges. He’s not a juvenile under the law anywhere in the United States. By that definition, he’s not a “teenager” in any legal sense of the term.

It’s absolute BS to claim otherwise, but Hochul’s decision to refer to them as such isn’t an accident; it’s calculated to make it seem like she’s the rational one. Never mind that “teenagers” get handguns in New York all the time, then use them illegally, but those who follow the law are disarmed in the face of potential aggression against them. You shouldn’t think about that because “teenagers” might buy guns lawfully.

Needless to say, her comments drew a lot of attention.

Some of it was the variety she doesn’t want.

🧐 https://t.co/f3g13j0KIq

— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) September 20, 2026

Whoops.

Dhillon has been the consistently pro-Second Amendment light in an administration that only just now remembered who voted for them and who didn’t. She’s gone after plenty of state and local governments that violated people’s rights, and I think this will serve as a golden opportunity to address the entire age restriction thing once and for all.

She’s got to be licking her chops at this one, because Hochul is all but making it easy for her.

I hate to break it to the good governor, but people’s rights aren’t dependent on how she tries to frame the situation. Either these are adults, or they’re not. There is no middle ground. 

A few years ago, Democrats like Hochul were pushing to lower the voting age to 16. In a lot of places, such as Georgia, you’re prosecuted as an adult at 17. 

Don’t pretend the people who are responsible enough for their actions to go to big-boy prison and/or elect our leaders by that criterion are somehow too young to exercise the totality of their civil liberties.

“But they can’t drink, either!”

Yeah, that’s BS, too, but that’s a topic for another day.

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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