DOJ says it may not criminally punish dealers who sell handguns to law-abiding 18-20-year-olds, but Ohio’s own under-21 shop rules are still on the books. Chip in so Ohio Gun Owners can hold the line through November.
A lot of people are about to get this story wrong and then wonder why nothing changed at the shop.
On September 17 the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel put out a formal opinion, and on September 18 DOJ announced it. Bottom line in plain English: DOJ says it may not criminally enforce the federal handgun age ban against licensed dealers who sell handguns to otherwise law-abiding adults ages 18 to 20.
Not because Congress repealed anything. Not because the Supreme Court wiped the statute off the books for the whole country. Because DOJ’s own lawyers concluded that hammering dealers with criminal penalties for those sales doesn’t square with the Second Amendment for that class of adults.
Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser put the common-sense piece out loud: an eighteen-year-old can vote, sit on a jury, get drafted, and face adult criminal penalties, and DOJ shouldn’t turn around and treat that same adult like a second-class citizen the minute they try to buy a handgun from a dealer.
Congress left the federal handgun age ban for dealers sitting in the U.S. Code. A future Attorney General can try to reverse course. Courts are not bound by an OLC opinion. The Fifth Circuit already struck this as applied for 18-20 FFL handgun sales, the Fourth Circuit upheld it, and the Supreme Court refused to take that Fourth Circuit case, so the split is still there. And even if federal criminal enforcement pauses, states can keep their own under-21 rules at the shop door.
Here’s the part that I hope you take away from this. Ohio still has its own under-21 handgun rules on the books: Ohio Revised Code 2923.21 and 2923.211. A Columbus shop is not automatically clear just because DOJ says it won’t chase dealers with federal criminal penalties. Federal non-enforcement is not the same thing as Ohio law disappearing when somebody walks up to the counter.
So this is not “we won forever, go home.” This is a window, and windows close, especially with November sitting right there and politicians already looking for a panic button.
We’re going to keep pressure on through November so a good week in Washington doesn’t turn into a shrug in Columbus. If you can spare a little, chip in so Ohio Gun Owners can hold that line. Keep us in the fight while the headlines fade and the statute is still sitting there waiting for the next AG.
For Ohio,
Chris Dorr
Executive Director
Ohio Gun Owners
P.S. Celebrate the OLC opinion for what it is. Then don’t pretend the work is done. Ohio’s shop-door rules are still real, and November is coming.