Everytown for Gun Safety's "The Smoking Gun" is supposed to be some attempt at a gun industry watchdog, but it's nothing more than a mouthpiece for anti-gun rhetoric designed to look like an unbiased newsroom. Think "The Trace," but with even less separation between the supposedly unbiased entity and Everytown.
Needless to say, though, The Smoking Gun is very upset that adults under 21 are being allowed to purchase handguns because of the DOJ suspending enforcement of a blatantly unconstitutional law. And to prove it, they're going to show just how badly the law performed.
On September 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel released a legal opinion claiming that the life-saving federal law prohibiting licensed gun dealers from selling handguns to people under the age of 21 is unconstitutional and may not be enforced. The opinion undercuts the federal Gun Control Act of 1968, which established such age restrictions, and could lead to federal prosecutors dropping criminal cases against those who sell handguns to 18- to 20-year-olds in violation of federal law.
Not only are guns the leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 18 and 20, but this demographic also commits gun homicides at triple the rate of people over the age of 21. The firearm suicide rate for this group has also increased by 11 percent over the last decade.
So this demographic that cannot get guns lawfully is committing three times as many homicides with a firearm as those who can lawfully purchase it, but this somehow proves we should keep the law on the books? The law that clearly did nothing to stop them?
Do these people ever read their own copy before they publish it? Like, ever?
The criminal elements of our society, many of whom are under 21, get guns regularly without going through the local gun stores. They then engage in criminal behavior, like shooting people.
However, there are an order of magnitude more law-abiding individuals under the age of 21 who don't even think of engaging in criminal activity. These are the people being negatively impacted by the law, because they can't get a gun to defend themselves.
How many of those homicide victims were people who just wouldn't back down in an argument with some wannabe gang-banger and got shot simply because they didn't have the means to defend themselves?
See, the problem is that whoever wrote this is doing exactly what these so-called publications routinely accuse sites like us of doing. They're engaging in fearmongering tactics to try and scare people into opposing the Trump administration's moves on the issue.
But let's talk about this. Let's really get into this failure.
Adults under 21 were barred from legally purchasing a firearm via the Gun Control Act, passed in 1968. Now, look at what happened after it was passed.
Note how the Gun Control Act did absolutely nothing to stop the homicide rate. Also note how the NFA was passed during a downward trend. That peak was actually when prohibition ended, for the record.
For the Gun Control Act, we didn't get below the homicide level of that year until 1997. That was part of a downward slide that continued well into this century.
Again, the law didn't work. It didn't do anything it was supposed to, and while I will accept that not everyone buys into the idea that gun rights make everyone safer, I won't ever understand people who want to keep an obviously failed law in effect just for the sake of form or whatever.
It's clear this prohibition didn't work, so why keep punishing those who have done nothing wrong?
Unless, of course, the problem is that you just don't want anyone buying guns.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
Help us continue to report on and expose the Democrats’ gun-grabbing schemes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to receive 60% off your membership.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member