Under-21 Buyers Sue Over Biden-Era Background Checks in Pennsylvania
Gun Owners of America just took the federal under-21 background check system to federal court. GOA and its Gun Owners Foundation filed Haward v. Blanche in the Western District of Pennsylvania this week. The suit challenges the enhanced background checks created by the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which apply only to buyers under 21. GOA's position is blunt: 18-to-20-year-old adults belong to "the people" the Second Amendment protects, and an automatic, age-based hold on their purchases violates that right. The same week, the Justice Department appealed GOA's win against the ATF's Engaged in the Business rule. GOA also went after Michigan Senate Democratic nominee Abdul El-Sayed over his private remarks about rewriting the Second Amendment.
Key Details
The case and the related fights break down into a few hard facts:
- The lawsuit: Haward v. Blanche, filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania.
- The target: enhanced background checks for adults under 21, created by the BSCA. President Joe Biden signed the law on June 25, 2022.
- GOA's characterization: the checks are automatic, indefinite, age-based waiting periods.
- The legal theory: GOA argues 18-to-20-year-olds are part of "the people," and cites a recent DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinion concluding that the federal ban on handgun sales to under-21 adults is unconstitutional.
- The DOJ appeal: the Justice Department appealed the judgment in GOA & Texas v. ATF, which previously enjoined and then vacated the Engaged in the Business rule under the Administrative Procedure Act.
- The workaround: earlier this year, the ATF reworded the rule and re-released it. The court's 2024 and 2026 orders, according to GOA, already barred that move.
- The Trump promise: the president pledged to tear up Biden-era gun rules on day one. GOA argues the DOJ appeal cuts against that pledge.
- The El-Sayed remarks: in videos he made private, El-Sayed floated amending the Second Amendment to guarantee health care instead of the right to bear arms. GOA says he is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan.
Background
The BSCA passed in 2022 as a bipartisan Senate deal, following the Buffalo and Uvalde mass shootings that spring. It contains the largest package of federal gun control in nearly 30 years, by GOA's count. Its under-21 provision requires federal checks to reach beyond the standard NICS query, including juvenile and mental health records, and it allows a delay of up to three business days while the government reviews the buyer. Gun rights groups have argued for years that this process burdens lawful buyers who have no criminal record.
The Engaged in the Business rule came from the ATF in 2024. It widened the definition of who must hold a federal dealer license, aiming at people who sell firearms repeatedly for profit, including some online and private sellers. GOA and Texas sued, won an injunction, and then obtained vacatur of the entire rule. The ATF's attempt to reissue it with altered wording is the reason GOA's lawyers cite the court's prior orders.
On the age question, the courts have split. In January 2025, the Fifth Circuit in Reese v. ATF struck down the federal ban on handgun sales by licensed dealers to 18-to-20-year-olds. The Fourth Circuit reached the opposite result in McCoy v. ATF. That split is the reason the Supreme Court is the likely final stop for this question.
Why It Matters for Gun Owners
If you are between 18 and 20, the BSCA check touches you directly. A buyer under 21 at a licensed dealer can face a delay while agencies pull juvenile and mental health records. Those records can be wrong, outdated, or sealed in ways the buyer never knew about. Anyone in that age bracket should keep copies of any court or juvenile records they can obtain, and should know how long a hold in their state typically takes.
Pennsylvania gun owners face the immediate court fight, but the ruling will reach every state that follows federal NICS procedures. The Engaged in the Business rule affects a different group: people who sell a few guns a year from a garage, through online classifieds, or at gun shows. If the DOJ wins its appeal, those sellers face a licensing question they thought the courts had already settled. Watch the appeal docket and the wording of any new ATF rule. A reworded version still carries the same legal risk.
Michigan voters have a direct stake in the El-Sayed race. A Senate seat decides confirmations, appropriations, and whether gun policy moves through Congress or stalls there. Check where your candidates stand on the Second Amendment before the November ballot, not after.
DownRange Analysis
The Bruen test asks whether the text covers the conduct, then whether the government can show a historical tradition of similar regulation. The text covers adults who are 18 to 20, and the militia statutes of the colonial era drafted young men starting at 16 or 18. A flat federal ban on handgun sales to that age group looks weak under that framework. A bureaucratic hold with no end date looks weaker still. GOA's "indefinite" argument is its strongest point, and it deserves more attention from the court than the policy debate.
For the market, the under-21 checks add friction to a segment that buys carry guns, first handguns, and hunting rifles at high rates. Dealers in Pennsylvania and elsewhere should expect longer holds to continue until a court rules. On the Engaged in the Business rule, the DOJ appeal is a bet that the ATF can rebuild the same rule with new words. Gun owners should not treat the vacatur as final until the appellate court says so.
What should you do right now? If you are under 21 and planning a purchase, budget for a delay. If you sell guns privately, keep records and avoid the pattern of repeated sales for profit until the appeal resolves. Read the Haward complaint when it becomes available. And tell your Michigan friends that a Senate vote is a Second Amendment vote.
