In a rare and unexpected admission in favor of the Second Amendment, the Department of Justice under Pam Bondi has conceded that a 1927 law prohibiting the mailing of “concealable” firearms, such as handguns, not only acts as a de facto ban for private citizens, but is unconstitutional and that the DOJ should cease prosecutions.
This relates to a case framed as a “Second Amendment challenge to 18 U.S.C. Section 1715, the nation’s first federal gun control law.” Filed on July 14, 2025 by a private individual along with Gun Owners of America and Gun Owners Foundation, Shreve v. United States Postal Service challenged the ban on mailing of concealable arms which includes handguns and short-barreled rifles and short-barreled shotguns.
The complaint was filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, and in December the plaintiffs moved for summary judgment. On December 18, U.S. District Judge Stephanie L. Haines granted the order for summary judgement and enjoined (nullified) enforcement of the challenged statute.
The January 15, 15-page opinion was issued by DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and signed by Assistant Attorney General, T. Elliot Gaiser. The OLC is the part of the DOJ that gives formal legal advice to the Executive Branch (the President, Attorney General, etc.).
The opinion lays out the framework for its finding which we summarize here:
- Since major express services currently forbid shipping of firearms by individuals, unlicensed private citizens face a complete ban on shipping.
- These prohibitions are jointly enforced by the Postal Service and federal prosecutors.
- The statute suppresses traffic in constitutionally protected articles thus rendering the law per se unconstitutional.
- There are no historical analogues that satisfy the government’s burden of showing the restriction “is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The opinion notes that all of Congress’s powers are subject to the limitations in the Bill of Rights, and that infringements related to the Second Amendment are no more tolerable than those related to the First (restrictions on printed material) or the Fourth (privacy as it relates to unconstitutional searches and seizures).
Remarkably, the opinion cites the text of the Second Amendment, the Bruen Supreme Court decision, and the fact that the Constitution served to simply codify a pre-existing right.
“Section 1715 substantially burdens the right to bear arms protected by the Second Amendment. An individual cannot mail himself a handgun for core constitutionally protected activity, such as self-defense, target shooting, or hunting,” states the opinion.
It’s incredibly rare for the federal government to limit its own powers, and although it did so only in response to an order by a court, this marks a new level of support by the DOJ for the Second Amendment. We’ve tracked every major 2A-related DOJ move here.
The DOJ is also party to other cases challenging federal restrictions on firearms, including a case addressing carrying of concealed firearms at post offices. In October of 2025, a district court ruled against the federal government’s 1972 prohibition of firearm possession at United States Post Offices. In that case, the Bondi DOJ asked the court to limit the injunction to only those members of the organizational plaintiffs in the suit.
