A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Minnesota law that requires a person to be at least 21 years old before they can obtain a permit to carry a gun in a public place for self-defense is unconstitutional.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis sided with gun rights groups, finding that the state’s ban violates the right of 18- to 20-year-olds to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
U.S. Circuit Judge Duane Benton, writing for a panel of three judges appointed by Republican presidents, said that under recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that have expanded gun rights, the state’s 2003 law cannot be considered valid.
“Importantly, the plain text of the Second Amendment contains no age limit,” he wrote.
The panel upheld a lower court judge’s ruling last year in favor of the Second Amendment Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition and the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, gun rights groups that had filed the suit along with some of their members.
Gun rights groups have filed similar lawsuits challenging age-based restrictions on firearm ownership in other states, including Georgia, Illinois and Pennsylvania.
Benton cited a 2022 landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court’s conservative majority, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, which changed the landscape of firearms regulation.
This decision established a new test for evaluating firearms laws, stating that restrictions must be “consistent with this country’s historical tradition of firearms regulation.”
In June, the Supreme Court clarified that standard in an 8-1 decision in United States v. Rahimi when it upheld a federal ban on gun ownership by people under domestic violence restraining orders, saying a “historic twin” law is not needed for a modern firearms ban.
Citing that decision, Benton said a rule requiring the disarming of people who pose a threat to the physical safety of others could be upheld, but Minnesota had not established why 18- to 20-year-olds pose a special risk that justifies its law.
A spokesman for Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat whose office has defended the law, did not respond to a request for comment.
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