A nearly 100-year-old federal prohibition on mailing handguns through the U.S. Postal Service can reportedly no longer be enforced because it violates the Second Amendment, according to a new legal opinion released Thursday by the Department of Justice.
The 15-page opinion concludes that a 1927 statute barring the mailing of concealable firearms, including pistols and revolvers, unlawfully infringes on Americans’ constitutional right to keep and bear arms. Writing for the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, Assistant Attorney General T. Elliot Gaiser said the law creates serious obstacles for law-abiding citizens seeking to exercise their rights.
“Section 1715 makes it difficult to travel with arms for lawful purposes, including self-defense, target shooting, and hunting,” Gaiser wrote. He added that the statute also erects significant barriers to shipping firearms as lawful articles of commerce, interfering with citizens’ ability to acquire and maintain arms protected by the Constitution.
Under current Postal Service policy, firearms deemed nonmailable that are discovered in the mail stream must be immediately reported to postal inspectors, with investigations referred to a U.S. attorney’s office for possible prosecution. The Postal Service classifies “pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed on a person,” including short-barreled rifles and shotguns, as handguns. At the same time, federal rules allow rifles and shotguns to be mailed between licensed dealers, manufacturers, and importers.
The DOJ opinion also noted that major private carriers such as UPS and FedEx restrict firearm shipping to licensed dealers only. Taken together, those policies effectively create what the opinion described as a “complete ban” on shipping handguns for ordinary, law-abiding Americans who are not federally licensed.
While the DOJ acknowledged that some restrictions remain valid, it made clear that the handgun ban itself cannot stand. The opinion found the statute unconstitutional only as it applies to handguns, not to undetectable firearms like pen guns. It also concluded that the Postal Service does not have to carry ammunition or gunpowder, even though those items are protected under the Second Amendment, because limits on explosives serve legitimate safety needs for postal workers and government property.
Still, the central conclusion was unambiguous. The DOJ said restrictions on mailing handguns are unenforceable because such firearms “fall within the core of the ‘arms’ protected by the Second Amendment.”
“Consequently,” the opinion stated, “so long as Congress chooses to run a parcel service, the Second Amendment precludes it from refusing to ship constitutionally protected firearms to and from law-abiding citizens, even if they are not licensed manufacturers or dealers.”
The opinion emphasized that mailing is often the most practical and effective way for Americans to transport firearms. It offered examples such as a traveler whose firearm is refused as baggage by a bus company while traveling between cities, leaving the individual with no realistic alternative but to ship the weapon.
The DOJ’s move comes amid ongoing legal pressure to overturn the longstanding ban. Last July, a gun rights lobbying group filed suit against the United States Postal Service, arguing that the handgun mailing prohibition had “outlived its Prohibition-era roots” and no longer aligns with modern constitutional law.
By declaring the restriction unconstitutional, the DOJ has now sided with that argument, marking a major shift in federal policy and signaling a broader effort to bring gun regulations into line with Second Amendment protections as interpreted in recent years.
