The Perfect Example of Anti-Gun Errors of Thinking

We all have errors in thinking, blind spots, and other places in our minds where we don’t really process information in the most rational manner possible. Maybe you’ve known people who can’t seem to tell that their child is a little turd because of that blind spot, or the people who can’t seem to grasp a simple fact because it runs against their beliefs.

It’s easier to see in someone else rather than yourself. I’d give you an example from me, but the problem with these things is that they’re damn hard to see on your own. While “you always think you’re right about everything” is thrown around as an insult, the truth is that to some degree, we all think we’re right about everything. If we know we’re wrong about something, we change our views and move on. We don’t intentionally keep being mistaken.

On the anti-gun side of the Second Amendment debate, there are plenty of them. Recently, at Everytown’s The Smoking Gun, I came across a prime example of just that kind of thing. An error in thinking that underpins the entire rationale for gun control.

On January 15, 2026, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel issued a memorandum opinion stating that a federal law prohibiting people from mailing handguns and other concealable firearms through the U.S. Postal Service — enacted in 1927 — is unconstitutional and should no longer be enforced. The opinion also recommends that the USPS “modify its regulations to conform with this opinion.”

The move is the latest attempt by the Trump administration to chip away at federal gun laws and appease gun groups, who were quick to celebrate the opinion. If the USPS follows suit, it will be significantly easier for Americans to mail handguns across state lines — and for gun traffickers and others prohibited from owning firearms to obtain them.

This is what I’m talking about.

The facts are simple. While this change will allow handguns to be shipped through the United States Postal Service, the laws are still clear about who can receive guns through the mail. Those can only go to someone with an FFL of the correct type. There are still laws against using the mail for gun trafficking.

Also, criminals did stuff like that all the time. The postal service didn’t really have a surefire way to detect guns. They wanted people to make declarations, and such, but aside from potential inspections of a package–which didn’t happen with every box, to be sure–they shipped thousands of guns, at least, without knowing it.

In other words, the rules they’re lamenting being gone weren’t stopping anyone in the first place.

But that’s irrelevant to them.

Well, to be accurate, it’s not irrelevant to them; they just can’t comprehend the simple fact because their errors in thinking simply won’t allow them to accept the simple fact. They’ll rationalize away any examples you give of when the law didn’t work as isolated incidents–made all the worse because too many people got away with it for you to name them all–and continue thinking that gun laws work no matter what.

Nothing in this change makes it legal to traffic guns through the USPS, of course. It just makes it easier for you and me to ship a firearm to someone authorized to receive it.

Criminals will continue to do as they’ve always done, and probably not change a single thing about how they do things. Especially as I’m not sure that many gun traffickers are interested in shipping guns in the first place. Criminals aren’t known for being a high-trust society, after all.

Then again, the people who write for The Smoking Gun aren’t exactly looking to correct their errors in thinking in the first place.

Editor’s Note: The radical left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.

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