For nearly a century, mailing a handgun through the U.S. Postal Service has been illegal for regular citizens. Rifles and shotguns? Sure, those were fine under certain conditions. But pistols and revolvers? Absolutely not. That’s been the law since 1927, when Congress passed the Mailing of Firearms Act to keep concealable weapons out of the hands of gangsters.
Now the USPS is on the verge of changing that. A proposed rule published in the Federal Register on April 2, 2026, would reclassify handguns as “Mailable Firearms,” putting them in the same category as rifles and shotguns. If finalized, it would be the first time in almost 100 years that a regular, law-abiding American could walk into a post office and ship a pistol.
Whether you think that’s long overdue or completely reckless probably depends on where you stand on guns in general. But the mechanics of how this happened, what it would actually look like in practice, and who’s fighting over it are all worth understanding. Because this isn’t some hypothetical debate. The public comment period already closed on May 4, 2026, and the USPS is reviewing those comments right now.
How We Got Here: The DOJ Called the Old Law Unconstitutional
The whole thing traces back to January 15, 2026, when the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel issued a 15-page memorandum. Their conclusion? The 1927 statute prohibiting the mailing of concealable firearms is unconstitutional as applied to handguns and other constitutionally protected arms.
The DOJ’s reasoning leaned heavily on the 2022 Supreme Court ruling in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which changed how courts evaluate gun laws. Under Bruen, a firearms regulation has to be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of regulating guns. The DOJ determined the 1927 mailing ban doesn’t meet that standard. It “serves an illegitimate purpose” and has no real parallel in American history, according to the memo.
The DOJ didn’t just offer an opinion and walk away. They directed the Postal Service to update its regulations and stated the executive branch would no longer enforce the statute against protected firearms. That’s a big deal. The administration basically said: this law still exists on the books, but we’re not going to follow it anymore, and you shouldn’t either.
What the Proposed Rule Would Actually Allow
Let’s get specific about what this proposed rule would and wouldn’t permit. Right now, if you’re a regular citizen (not a licensed dealer), you cannot mail a handgun through USPS, period. Licensed dealers, manufacturers, and importers can, but you can’t.
Under the new rule, “lawful” handguns, meaning pistols and revolvers that are legal to possess, would be mailable under the same terms as rifles and shotguns. The conditions are straightforward: the gun must be shipped unloaded, the package can have no external markings indicating what’s inside, and all shipments must use a USPS product that provides tracking and signature capture at delivery.
The USPS would also be allowed to require you to open the package or provide written certification that the weapon is unloaded before they accept it.
Within state lines, someone could sell and ship a gun to another person via USPS. Across state lines, the rules are tighter. You could only mail a handgun to yourself, in care of another person, and you’d be required to open it yourself at the other end. That restriction is designed for travelers. Say you’re heading from Wisconsin to Michigan for a hunting trip and want your handgun there. Under current law, if your route takes you through Chicago for a couple days, you could potentially face arrest just for having a firearm, since federal traveler protections only cover continuous trips. Mailing the gun ahead of time would solve that problem.
What stays off limits? National Firearms Act items like machine guns, short-barreled rifles, suppressors, and destructive devices. Those would remain classified as “nonmailable” for anyone who isn’t specifically authorized to handle them. Ammunition is also still barred from USPS shipment.
Why Gun Rights Groups Say It Doesn’t Go Far Enough
You might assume Second Amendment organizations are doing a victory lap over this. And some are. The NRA’s executive director John Commerford called it “a key victory for law-abiding gun owners” and praised the Trump administration for finally letting USPS ship handguns under “the same commonsense safety conditions as rifles and shotguns.”
But Gun Owners of America, which filed a lawsuit (Shreve v. USPS) challenging the 1927 statute back in July 2025, says the proposal falls short. Their complaint is that it still excludes short-barreled rifles and suppressors, both of which are legal to own in many states. GOA’s deputy director of federal affairs, Ben Sanderson, told reporters the group would continue pursuing its lawsuit.
GOA Senior Vice President Erich Pratt put it bluntly: “Allowing Americans to ship handguns through the mail is not going to cause the sky to fall.” But his organization also noted the proposed rule “spins a complex web of regulations with which gun owners must comply,” and they want fewer strings attached, not more.
The complaint about ammunition is another sticking point. You can already buy ammo online and have it shipped through private carriers in most states, but the USPS still won’t touch it. For gun rights groups, that inconsistency is irritating.
22 Attorneys General Are Trying to Kill the Rule
On the other side, a coalition of 22 Democratic attorneys general submitted a comment letter urging the USPS to withdraw the rule entirely. California AG Rob Bonta was one of the most vocal, saying the Trump administration is “recklessly disregarding the safety of the people it is sworn to serve” and calling the change an “irresponsible loophole.”
Their core argument is that allowing private individuals to mail handguns without going through a licensed dealer will make it easier for people who can’t legally possess firearms (felons, people convicted of domestic violence) to get their hands on them. When guns move through licensed dealers, there’s a paper trail and, in most states, a background check. When a private citizen drops a box at the post office, there’s a tracking number but no background check on the recipient.
Nevada AG Aaron Ford, who cited the October 1, 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting that killed 60 people, said the rule would undermine state-level protections, including Nevada’s law requiring background checks on most private gun sales or transfers.
The attorneys general also raised a practical concern: there’s no realistic way to verify that someone is following the rules and not shipping a handgun across state lines to another person. Law enforcement would need to build an entirely new tracking structure, and that costs money states don’t have budgeted.
Gun Control Groups Are Calling It a “Trafficking Pipeline”
Everytown for Gun Safety president John Feinblatt didn’t mince words. He told the Associated Press that the proposed rule would turn the USPS into a “gun trafficking pipeline” for illegal weapons, “while stripping law enforcement of the tools they need to prevent and investigate gun crime.”
The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence raised a different angle: the possibility that people in states with loose gun laws could obtain handguns and then ship them into states with much stricter regulations. Think about someone in a state with no background check requirement on private sales mailing a gun into New York or California. That’s technically illegal under the proposed rule’s interstate restrictions, but critics say enforcement would be nearly impossible.
The League of Women Voters weighed in too, arguing that “any rule change that weakens safeguards on the circulation of firearms undermines the ability of all people to participate fully in civic life.” Their concern was that voters might feel less safe when going to cast ballots.
Private Carriers Already Won’t Ship Guns for Regular People
Here’s a detail that often gets lost in this debate. FedEx and UPS, the two biggest private shipping alternatives, already restrict gun shipments to customers with federal firearms licenses. FedEx requires shippers with an FFL to work with a FedEx account executive to get approval before sending any firearm. Regular customers can’t just walk in and ship a pistol through FedEx or UPS.
That means if you’re a law-abiding gun owner who needs to ship a handgun for repair, an inheritance situation, relocation, or a sporting event, your only real options right now are either routing it through a licensed dealer (which usually means extra fees) or finding some other workaround. The DOJ memo specifically noted that large common carriers refuse to ship firearms for private citizens, making USPS potentially the “only viable method of transportation” for many gun owners.
What Happens Next
The 30-day public comment period closed on May 4, 2026. The USPS is now reviewing those comments and has three options: finalize the rule as proposed, revise it, or withdraw it entirely. Given that the rule came from a direct DOJ directive, withdrawal seems unlikely, but revisions are certainly possible.
Meanwhile, the legal battle isn’t over. State attorneys general from Delaware, New Jersey, and New York have asked a judge in the Shreve v. USPS case to allow them to defend the 1927 statute, since the DOJ declined to do so. That case could end up shaping how this all plays out regardless of what the USPS decides to do with its proposed rule.
One thing is clear: a law that’s been in place since the days of Al Capone is being challenged in a way it never has before. Whether the USPS starts accepting handgun shipments in the coming months or this gets tied up in courts for years, the debate over who gets to mail what, and where, is just getting started.