Minnesota’s ban on gun carry permits for young adults is unconstitutional, appeals court rules

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota’s law that bans people ages 18 to 20 from getting permits to carry guns in public is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, affirming a lower court decision that concluded the Second Amendment guarantees the rights of young adults to bear arms for self-defense.

“Minnesota has not met its burden to proffer sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption that 18 to 20-year-olds seeking to carry handguns in public for self defense are protected by the right to keep and bear arms,” the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

The three-judge panel cited a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that expanded gun rights in 2022 and a major decision last month that upheld a federal gun control law that is intended to protect victims of domestic violence.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez reluctantly struck down the Minnesota law in March of 2023 but granted the state’s emergency motion for a stay, keeping the ban in place until the state’s appeal could be resolved. Her ruling was an example of how the 2022 Supreme Court case, known as the Bruen decision, upended gun laws nationwide, dividing courts and sowing confusion over what restrictions can remain in force.

The Bruen decision, which was the conservative-led high court’s biggest gun ruling in more than a decade, held that Americans have a 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 ask whether restrictions are consistent with the country’s “historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

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