The Department of Justice has said that the law prohibiting adults under 21 from buying a handgun is unconstitutional. This is an important decision, but it doesn’t really do all that much in and of itself. It doesn’t change the law, even if the feds refuse to enforce it. The next guy will, and don’t be surprised if another Biden decides to hammer gun stores that took part in those sales.
Still, it happened, and as Frank Miniter notes at American Rifleman, it still matters.
Still, it marks a decisive moment in this long civil-rights battle to win back and defend this basic right.
An 18-20-year-old, after all, is deemed to be mature enough to be drafted, to serve with arms to defend this nation, and to possibly die for this nation. Adults in this demographic are legally thought to be mature enough to understand politics enough to vote. They are considered to legally be mature enough to decide life-and-death decisions on a jury. They can even be sentenced to death for their actions.
This opinion notes in its first paragraph that an “eighteen-year-old represented the United States at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, shooting skeet. Yet, due to statutes predicated on concerns over an eighteen-year-old’s ability to handle a pistol as a responsible adult, it would have been a federal felony if a licensed dealer had sold her such a firearm before she left or after she returned to her studies at the University of Texas at Arlington.”
The inconsistency of this treatment of a constitutionally protected right is simply not defensible; however, this opinion dives deep into the historical analysis—thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bruen test—of how federal, state, and local government bodies have treated 18-20-year-old citizens. The DOJ’s exhaustive legal analysis finds the ban, at each turn, to be unconstitutional.
Miniter finishes up by saying, “This opinion is sure to be cited in courtrooms and legislatures, which is the point,” and that is, I think the crux of why this is important.
In and of itself, it doesn’t change anything.
What it might manage to do, though, is open up the gates and invite pro-gun groups to file suits on behalf of members under the age of 21 who would like to buy a handgun. Even without enforcement, the law stands. A prudent dealer would still cite the law as a reason to decline the sale, and that should provide standing. Especially if the DOJ doesn’t actually try to object to the plaintiff’s standing.
Once the courts start ruling that, yeah, the law is unconstitutional, it starts to crumble. If the DOJ filed just enough of an appeal to get it before the Supreme Court, they can kill it once and for all.
And if they don’t, well, there will still be avenues for those adults under 21. They might have to join a gun rights organization first, but that’s hardly an insurmountable burden.
The reality is that the decision doesn’t have the force of law, but it sure looks like an invitation to put it before people who can make it have the force of law.
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