US Postal Service Eyes Allowing Handguns in Mail
The Spin
Republican narrative
The 1927 ban on mailing handguns is a clear Second Amendment violation. Private carriers like UPS and FedEx already refuse to ship firearms for unlicensed citizens, leaving law-abiding gun owners with zero options to transport their own property. The DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel found no historical tradition supporting this ban, and the Supreme Court's Bruen decision makes the constitutional case airtight. Lifting this restriction is long overdue, as the Second Amendment is not a second-class right and "Shall not be infringed."
Democratic narrative
Letting handguns flow through USPS without background checks or licensed dealer oversight hands felons, domestic abusers and other prohibited persons a direct pipeline to firearms that state laws are specifically designed to block. The executive branch cannot unilaterally gut a valid federal statute Congress passed and has upheld for nearly 100 years. This rule blows up state law enforcement tracing systems and dumps massive new costs onto already-strained state budgets, especially at a time when mass shootings and gun violence are far too common.