Uthmeier embraces DOJ opinion finding federal handgun sales ban unconstitutional

The campaign to lower the legal age for Floridians to purchase long guns got a boost after the Trump’s administration’s Department of Justice issued an opinion declaring that the federal ban on handgun sales to 18-to-20-year-olds violates the Second Amendment.

On Friday, the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel released a 49-page document arguing that two federal statutes that ban federally licensed dealers from selling handguns or handgun ammunition to individuals under 21 is inconsistent with the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“Eighteen-year-olds may vote, serve on juries, be drafted, and face adult criminal penalties, including capital punishment,” said Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser for the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel in a written statement.

“The Constitution protects the people’s right to keep and bear arms. The Department of Justice may not constitutionally seek to impose criminal penalties on dealers who sell handguns to law-abiding adults who, in nearly every other relevant respect, are members of the political community.”

That news cheered Floridians opposed to the state’s ban on individuals under 21 from buying a shotgun or rifle. That provision was part of the 2018 gun-safety law passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Rick Scott in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public High School in Parkland.

Critics of the law include Gov. Ron DeSantis and GOP gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds, who has previously stated that he will work to overturn the age limitation if elected in November.

Another Florida Republican celebrating the opinion was Attorney General James Uthmeier.

“Glad DOJ has followed suit in the fight for Second Amendment rights of Americans who are old enough to sign up to defend our nation!” Uthmeier wrote Friday on X. “We took this position at the Supreme Court a year ago and look forward to working with the Florida Legislature to right this wrong!”

Just a few months after DeSantis appointed him last year, Uthmeier declared that in his opinion the Florida law was unconstitutional, and that he was directing his office not to defend it in a court challenge.  The National Rifle Association had filed that lawsuit in 2018 after the Parkland law was implemented, but the high court denied its petition to hear the case on June 30.

Florida Republicans in the House of Representatives have approved legislation during the past four legislative sessions to repeal the restrictions, but the bill has never become law because of opposition in the Florida Senate. The Phoenix reached out to incoming Senate President Jim Boyd last month to inquire about his stance on the law, but he did not respond.

Donalds told the Phoenix last month, “We’re going to remove that provision,” adding, “It’s gotta go.”

Democratic gubernatorial candidate David Jolly has said the law “should stay in place.”

Florida Second Amendment advocates say the DOJ’s opinion should pave the way for the Legislature to finally repeal the provision in the 2027 session.

No excuse

“If the federal government is declaring that an under-21 purchase ban is unconstitutional, then Florida’s under-21 purchase law is unconstitutional!” declared Luis Valdes, Florida state director for Gun Owners of America. “Tallahassee no longer has any excuse to delay repealing it!”

The Florida law only pertains to long guns, which include rifles, carbines, shotguns, and submachine guns. It never included handguns, since it has been illegal for licensed dealers to sell handguns to young adults under 21 since 1968.

Gun-safety groups denounced the DOJ’s legal opinion.

“The math here is simple: 18-to-20-year-olds commit gun homicides at triple the rate of people 21 and older, which is why more than 80% of Americans want 21 to be the minimum age to buy a gun,” said John Feinblatt, president of Everytown for Gun Safety.

“Trump’s MAGA DOJ is handing the gun industry something it could never win in Congress or at the ballot box, and America will pay for it in lives lost and shattered communities.”

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s Supplementary Homicide Report from 2020 identified 18-to-20-year-olds as perpetrators in fatal shootings at “three times the rate of 16-year-olds” and about “three times the rate of a person in their 30s.”