Minnesota’s regulations that prohibit adults younger than 21 from carrying firearms are unconstitutional, a federal appeals court has ruled.
On July 16, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit unanimously sided with three 18-to-20-year-old Minnesotans who sued to overturn the state’s carry permit rule, which has been in place since 2003.
Joined by several Second Amendment advocacy groups, the three plaintiffs argued that Minnesota’s permit-to-carry system, along with the requirement that one must be at least 21 to apply for a permit, deprived them of their constitutional right to bear arms.
The Eighth Circuit’s ruling upheld a March 2023 decision in which Judge Katherine Menendez of the U.S. District Court of Minnesota struck down the age restriction as unconstitutional, but left other carry permit regulations untouched.
A two-step test for examining the constitutionality of gun laws, Bruen requires a court to focus on whether the Second Amendment’s plain text applies to a person and the person’s proposed conduct.
If it does, the burden of proof falls on the government to show that the law is consistent with the “history and tradition” of firearms regulation in the United States.
“The Supreme Court’s recent decision in [Bruen] compels the conclusion that Minnesota’s permitting age restriction is unconstitutional, and plaintiffs are entitled to judgment as a matter of law,” Judge Menendez wrote in her order.
The circuit judges agreed with her analysis. Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Duane Benton noted that while the Constitution does set age limits on certain rights, such as a minimum age to serve in Congress, there isn’t one for the right to bear arms.
“Importantly, the Second Amendment’s plain text does not have an age limit,” which shifts the burden of proof to the state to provide historical analogs of similar restrictions from the Early Republic era, Judge Benton wrote.
Arguing for the state, Minnesota Commissioner of Public Safety John Harrington pointed to several post-Civil War gun laws, including an 1875 Indiana law prohibiting giving minors weapons that can be “concealed upon the person.”
The judge found none of those examples to be compelling enough to justify the modern Minnesota law.
“Minnesota has not met its burden to proffer sufficient evidence,” he said. “The Carry Ban ... violates the Second Amendment as applied to Minnesota through the Fourteenth Amendment, and, thus, is unconstitutional.”
Second Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit organization that joined in the lawsuit, welcomed the ruling.
“We are encouraged that, yet another circuit court has correctly concluded that 18- to 20-year-olds are, in fact, part of ’the People' to which the Second Amendment extends,” Adam Kraut, the organization’s executive director, said in a statement to The Epoch Times.
“This nation’s history and tradition demonstrate that the bans affecting young adults are not consistent with the right to keep and bear arms.”
