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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Sunday, January 18, 2026

A nearly 100-year-old federal ban on mailing handguns through the US Postal Service is unconstitutional and cannot be enforced, according to an opinion by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Gun Lobby Suing to Mail Concealable Firearms

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For 99 years, it's been illegal under federal law to use the U.S. Postal Service to send concealable firearms through the mail. Trump's Justice Department now wants to see this law struck down -- among other "reforms" to the nation's gun policies. www.ms.now/rachel-maddo ...

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-- Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) Jan 16, 2026 at 2:02 PM

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"The DOJ argued that a 1927 law, which made it illegal to use the Postal Service to mail concealable firearms, such as pistols and revolvers, infringes on the Second Amendment.

Section 1715 makes it difficult to travel with arms for lawful purposes, including self-defense, target shooting, and hunting."
The statute also imposes significant barriers to shipping constitutionally protected firearms as articles of commerce, which interferes with citizens' incidental rights to acquire and maintain arms," the opinion continued.

Postal Service policy mandates that nonmailable firearms found in the mail stream "must be immediately reported to the United States Postal Inspection Service," and investigations are then referred to the relevant US attorney's office for prosecution.
The agency categorizes "pistols, revolvers, and other firearms capable of being concealed on a person," 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.

Major private carriers, including UPS and FedEx, also restrict the shipping of firearms to only licensed dealers, which the opinion argued effectively creates a "complete ban" for unlicensed people."


~snip~

In 1963, the US Postal Service certainly obliged Lee Harvey Oswald: Mail Order Rifle

In 2025 Dummkopf Trumpf idiotically signed an Executive Order loosening federal firearm regulations after he himself was almost felled by assassin's bullet on 13 July 2024 in Butler, PA. The DOJ is suing Washington DC to allow residents to own assault rifles and ammunition vending machines are available in six states across the US, with plans for further expansion.

One in five Americans experience a mental health issue every year and the nefarious Trumpf junta abruptly slashed nearly two billion dollars in funding for programs that serve people with mental illness and substance abuse. Every eleven minutes someone in the US is killed with a firearm, either by assailant, by accident, or suicide.

The more Americans are shot, the more hospitalizations occur in our insidious for-profit healthcare system. Moreover, many Americans are opting out of health insurance in 2026 because of rising premiums and the lack of ACA (Obamacare) subsidies.


#1 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-01-17 01:07 PM | Reply

Ballots by mail BAD
Firearms by mail GOOD

#2 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-01-17 01:38 PM | Reply | Funny: 1 | Newsworthy 5

Hah! So true.

#3 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-01-17 01:43 PM | Reply

Guns and Mailmen. What could go wrong?

#4 | Posted by Alexandrite at 2026-01-17 01:47 PM | Reply

Gives "going postal" a whole new meaning...

#5 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-01-17 02:46 PM | Reply

Oh the Irony if Trump gets Capped by a Mail order weapon like Kennedy was.

The Stupid.....It Burns.

#6 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2026-01-18 10:14 AM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

@#2 ...
Ballots by mail BAD
Firearms by mail GOOD
...

Yup.

#7 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-01-18 11:41 PM | Reply

One has a nagging persistent thought that for decades now, the refusal to attend to the needs of the people in regards to firearms, as in, protect Americans from all those with hate and despair in their hearts and AR-15s in their hands, is a deliberate lead up to another Civil War. I can understand MAGA no other way.

#8 | Posted by Hughmass at 2026-01-19 07:44 AM | Reply

Truthfully, modern gun laws in some states make this not terribly surprising to me.

For instance, one time I drove through New York with a few guns in my car and when I looked up the laws and what to do to remain as legal as possible...holy cow.

In order to remain as legal as possible while driving through NY, I had to have all guns in locked cases in the trunk (back, my car doesn't have a trunk) and the ammo not in the trunk...err...back. But I can't have it separate because there is no distinct trunk and having the ammo in a separate compartment of the car was a legal requirement. There was also the issue of having several handguns and semi auto long guns, which are heavily regulated in New York, especially those scary black rifles.

Now, the storage in locked cases wasn't a big deal because I do that anyway. But having handguns and semi auto long guns in the car that aren't registered in NY with ammo technically in the same compartment of the vehicle could have been problematic for me even though NY technically has a pass through or drive through law on the books (it's legal to be in possession of "illegal" firearms if your destination isn't within the state of New York). All of the commentary/analysis I read regarding NY gun safety laws said that I would technically be fine if I got pulled over; however, there are numerous cases of people having guns confiscating and charges brought even though they were following the letter of the law. Most eventually got the charges dropped, but then they had the issues of paying lawyer fees, getting their property back from the state after the bogus charges are dropped and the potential lost time of being jailed initially when the bogus charges are filed, vehicle impoundment ect.

The only other option is to pay what would probably be hundreds of dollars for multiple firearms to have them shipped between FFLs, which, for a long weekend, isn't really worth the cost.

The ability to simply mail my property to the address I was going to would have made it all far far easier and less worrisome because one state has draconian anti-gun laws.

#9 | Posted by jpw at 2026-01-19 11:16 AM | Reply

And yet Arizona will not ship Whiskey to me.

#10 | Posted by Nixon at 2026-01-20 08:17 AM | Reply

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