Minnesota’s ban on gun carry permits for young adults is unconstitutional, appeals court rules
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota’s law banning people between the ages of 18 and 20 from obtaining a permit to carry guns in public is unconstitutional. federal court of appeals ruled On Tuesday, a lower court ruling was upheld that found the Second Amendment guarantees the right of young adults to bear arms for self-defense.
“Minnesota has failed to meet its burden of proving sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption that 18- to 20-year-olds who choose to carry handguns in public for self-defense are protected by the right to keep and bear arms,” the 8th U.S. Court of Appeals ruled.
The three-judge panel cited a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling decision that expanded gun rights in 2022 and an important decision last month that a federal gun control law upheld which is intended to protect victims of domestic violence.
U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez reluctantly put down Minnesota law in March 2023, but granted the state’s emergency motion for a stay, keeping the ban in place until the state’s appeal could be heard. Her ruling was an example of how the 2022 Supreme Court case known as the Bruen decision gun laws overturned across the country, the division of courts and sowing confusion about what restrictions may remain in force.
The Bruen decision, which the conservative supreme court The largest gun ruling in more than a decade, holding that Americans have the right to carry firearms in public for self-defense. And it established a new test for evaluating challenges to gun restrictions, saying courts must now consider whether restrictions are consistent with the nation’s “historical tradition of gun regulation.”
Attorney General Keith Ellison, whose office represented the state in the case, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the ruling.
“This epidemic of gun violence will continue unabated unless we do something about it,” Ellison said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s ruling in Bruen has made that much harder by opening the floodgates to lawsuits from gun rights activists seeking to overturn reasonable safety laws. … The people of Minnesota want and deserve solutions that reduce shootings and improve public safety, and today’s ruling only makes that harder.”
The state argued in the appeals court that Second Amendment protections should not apply to 18- to 20-year-olds, even if they are law-abiding, because states have always had the authority to regulate guns in the hands of irresponsible or dangerous groups of people. The state argued that people under 21 are not competent to make responsible decisions about guns and therefore pose a danger to themselves and others.
But the appeals court said the plain text of the Second Amendment sets no age limit, so ordinary, law-abiding young adults are presumed to be protected. And it said the crime statistics provided by the state for the case do not support a conclusion that 18- to 20-year-olds who otherwise qualify for a gun license pose an unacceptable risk of danger.
Rob Doar, senior vice president of government affairs for the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, which filed a lawsuit to overturn the law, said people who hold gun permits are “overwhelmingly law-abiding.” He said Minnesotans who are 18 to 20 years old should be able to apply for a gun permit immediately, assuming they have meet the same legal requirements like other adults, requiring training by a certified instructor and background checks.
Ellison noted that the ruling came just three days after a 20 year old in Pennsylvania Former President Donald Trump shot and wounded with a gun purchased by his father. Pennsylvania requires applicants For permits to carry concealed firearms, you must be 21 years of age. Open carry is generally permitted everywhere in Pennsylvania, except Philadelphia.