CCRKBA APPLAUDS DOJ POSITION ON HANDGUN SALES TO YOUNG ADULTS
| For Immediate Release Sept. 22, 2026 | Contact: Alan Gottlieb (425) 454-4911 |
BELLEVUE, WA – The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms says the Department of Justice’s analysis that the federal ban on handgun sales to young adults in the 19-20 age group is unconstitutional “is the correct position, and should have been announced long ago.”
The prohibition was part of the 1968 Gun Control Act.
The DOJ memorandum has ignited a fury among gun prohibition groups, which are typically declaring doom and gloom across the landscape. The head of one gun control lobbying organization “used a broad brush to demonize the entire age group” by asserting they are responsible for many school shootings, public mass shootings and gun-related homicides.
“Imagine the backlash if such insulting remarks were made about certain ethnic groups,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “These people are afraid to blame gangs for troubling statistics, so they blame guns.
“But the Justice Department properly recognizes that young adults are mature enough to be drafted, serve as jurors and be sentenced to capital punishment for crimes,” he noted. “We would also add that young adults can vote, run for local public office, get married, start businesses, enlist in the military—where the government issues them automatic weapons—and enter into contracts. We send them to foreign lands to defend our country, yet the law prohibits them from enjoying all of the rights guaranteed by our Constitution.
“Frankly,” Gottlieb continued, “we are impressed at the degree of thought that went into the DOJ memorandum. To boil it all down, the Justice Department—which has repeatedly stated the Second Amendment is not a second-class right—is also now saying that young adults are not second-class citizens, able to enjoy some rights but are effectively prevented from exercising one right which belongs to ‘the people.’
“We think the time has come for Congress to remedy this situation,” he said. “The Justice Department has just handed Capitol Hill a road map. We encourage Congress to right a wrong adopted nearly 60 years ago and restore all the rights which have been earned by young adults throughout the nation’s history.”
With more than 650,000 members and supporters nationwide, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org) is one of the nation's premier gun rights organizations. As a non-profit organization, the Citizens Committee is dedicated to preserving firearms freedoms through active lobbying of elected officials and facilitating grass-roots organization of gun rights activists in local communities throughout the United States.
