(RightWing.org) – Second Amendment defenders in Minnesota have won a major victory against the deep-blue state’s gun banners. For more than 20 years, Minnesota has had a ban on carry permits for those under age 21. Now a federal court has ruled that the law is unconstitutional.
In 2003, the Minnesota legislature passed a law which restricts the issue of concealed carry permits in the state to gun owners aged 21 or older. In March last year, after three gun owners aged 18 to 20 brought a lawsuit challenging the law, US District Judge Katherine Menendez struck it down as unconstitutional — but immediately granted the state an emergency motion allowing it to stay in place pending appeal. The plaintiffs did just that, and on July 16 the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguements in the case.
Although Menendez vacated the law, she seems to have been reluctant to do that. The three-judge panel of the 8th Circuit didn’t share her reluctance. Citing the landmark 2022 New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen case, in which the Supreme Court ruled that New York’s concealed carry ban was unconstitutional, the judges confirmed that the Minnesota law violated the Second Amendment. Bruen requires the government to make sure any new gun laws fit in with the “history and tradition” of firearms regulation in the US, and also force courts to focus on Second Amendment rights when ruling on the constitutionality of a law.
State officials argued that age restrictions have existed in the past, citing an 1875 Indiana law that banned giving guns that can be “concealed upon the person to minors.” Of course the Minneapolis law applies to young adults, not minors, but in any case the appeal judges weren’t impressed.
Ruling that the state hasn’t shown enough evidence, they affirmed Menendez’s decision that the law is unconstitutional. Just to remove any doubt that the Founding Fathers didn’t intend states to pass this sort of ban, Judge Duane Benton wrote “the Second Amendment’s plain text does not have an age limit.”
Minnesota can appeal the decision, but considering the recent history of Supreme Court rulings on gun rights, it’s unlikely they’ll want to do that.
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