Published September 18, 2026 at 5:19 PM ET · Updated September 18, 2026 at 10:17 PM ET
DOJ calls federal handgun ban on 18-year-olds unconstitutional
1 independent outlet is covering this story, first reported here by The Federalist. Verification: Watching (how we verify). Every headline links to the original reporting.
The Department of Justice called the federal handgun ban on 18-year-olds unconstitutional. The statement addresses the federal restriction that bars 18-year-old adults from handgun access.
Patriot Watch first flagged this story 12 d ago, when The Federalist reported it. So far this remains a single-source report. The most recent report came 12 d ago from The Federalist.
⚖ The Constitutional Angle
Bruen requires the government to justify any regulation the Second Amendment's plain text covers with the Nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation. Heller recognized an individual right to handgun possession for self-defense but held it not unlimited, treating longstanding conditions on commercial sale as presumptively lawful, the ban's strongest defense. DOJ says history offers no such support for this ban.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Kevin P. Bruen, Superintendent of New York State Police 597 U.S. 1 (2022)
Vote: 6-3 · Opinion: Thomas
New York's requirement that applicants demonstrate 'proper cause' — a special need for self-protection distinguishable from the general community — to obtain an unrestricted public-carry license violates the Fourteenth Amendment by preventing law-abiding citizens with ordinary self-defense needs from exercising their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms in public. The Court held the Second Amendment protects a right to carry handguns publicly for self-defense, and rejected the two-step means-end framework lower courts had applied after Heller.
District of Columbia v. Heller 554 U.S. 570 (2008)
Vote: 5-4 · Opinion: Scalia
The Second Amendment protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia and to use it for traditionally lawful purposes such as self-defense within the home. The right is not unlimited: the Court noted that longstanding prohibitions (e.g., possession by felons and the mentally ill, carrying in sensitive places, conditions on commercial sale) remain presumptively lawful. D.C.'s ban on handgun possession in the home and its requirement that lawful firearms in the home be kept nonfunctional violate the Second Amendment.
Precedent facts from the PW Law Library — primary-source verified & independently audited
