{"id":114588,"date":"2026-01-16T16:37:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=114588"},"modified":"2026-01-16T16:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T22:38:12","slug":"114588","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=114588","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

DOJ: Ban on mailing concealable firearms unconstitutional, can\u2019t be enforced<\/a><\/p>\n

A nearly 100-year-old federal ban on mailing handguns through the U.S. Postal Service is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, according to an opinion released Thursday by the Department of Justice (DOJ).<\/p>\n

The\u00a015-page opinion<\/a>\u00a0concluded that\u00a0a 1927 law<\/a>, which made it illegal to use the Postal Service to mail concealable firearms, such as pistols and revolvers, infringes on the Second Amendment.<\/p>\n

\u201cSection 1715 makes it difficult to travel with arms for lawful purposes, including self-defense, target shooting, and hunting,\u201d wrote T. Elliot Gaiser, the assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe statute also imposes significant barriers to shipping constitutionally protected firearms as articles of commerce, which interferes with citizens\u2019 incidental rights to acquire and maintain arms,\u201d the opinion continued.<\/p>\n

Postal Service policy mandates that\u00a0nonmailable firearms found in the mail stream<\/a> \u201cmust be immediately reported to the United States Postal Inspection Service,\u201d and investigations are then referred to the relevant U.S. attorney\u2019s office for prosecution.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0agency categorizes<\/a>\u00a0\u201cpistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed on a person,\u201d including short-barreled shotguns and rifles, as handguns. It also notes there are no restrictions on mailing rifles and shotguns between licensed dealers, manufacturers and importers.<\/p>\n

Major private carriers,\u00a0including UPS<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0FedEx<\/a>, also restrict the shipping of firearms to only licensed dealers, which the opinion argued effectively creates a \u201ccomplete ban\u201d for unlicensed people.<\/p>\n

The opinion acknowledged some limitations, finding the law was only unconstitutional related to handguns but still applied to undetectable firearms, such as pen guns.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\n

It also found the Postal Service should not be required to carry ammunition or gunpowder, despite those being constitutionally protected, because the existing restriction on explosives \u201cserves legitimate postal needs to prevent injury to postal employees and property.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, the DOJ determined the restrictions on handguns are unenforceable because such firearms \u201cfall within the core of the \u2018arms\u2019 protected by the Second Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConsequently, 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,\u201d the opinion stated.<\/p>\n

The opinion further argued that mailing was \u201cthe most effective way to transport an individual\u2019s firearm to his destination,\u201d pointing to several hypothetical examples, such as a bus refusing to accept a person\u2019s firearm as baggage when traveling from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

The opinion comes\u00a0amid a lawsuit<\/a> filed by a gun rights lobbying group last July against the Postal Service seeking to overturn the ban, arguing the statute had \u201coutlived its Prohibition-era roots.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOJ: Ban on mailing concealable firearms unconstitutional, can\u2019t be enforced A nearly 100-year-old federal ban on mailing handguns through the U.S. Postal Service is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, according to an opinion released Thursday by the Department of Justice (DOJ). The\u00a015-page opinion\u00a0concluded that\u00a0a 1927 law, which made it illegal to use the Postal Service … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,79],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=114588"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":114637,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114588\/revisions\/114637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=114588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=114588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=114588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}