Minnesota ban on 18- to 20-year-olds obtaining handgun permits is unconstitutional, federal appeals court says

(CNN) — Minnesota’s ban on 18- to 20-year-olds obtaining a permit to publicly carry a handgun violates the US Constitution, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

A three-judge panel of the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals said in a unanimous decision that the 2003 law runs afoul of both the Second Amendment and the 14th, holding that the state cannot lawfully prohibit individuals between the ages of 18 and 20 from obtaining a public carry permit simply because they are not at least 21.

“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,” Circuit Judge Duane Benton, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, wrote in the ruling. He was joined in his decision by Lavenski Smith, who was also appointed by Bush, and David Stras, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.

Tuesday’s ruling comes as the nation reels from the Saturday assassination attempt against Trump by Thomas Matthew Crooks, a 20-year-old from Pennsylvania, who was killed by Secret Service agents at the scene. The shooter’s age has turned a spotlight back on the nation’s gun laws, including state restrictions pertaining to young people.

The AR-style rifle Crooks used to shoot at Trump was legally purchased by his father, Matthew Crooks, CNN has reported.

The Minnesota law was challenged several years ago by gun rights groups and people impacted by the age prohibition.

A lower federal court said the state’s law was unconstitutional under a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that changed the framework federal courts must use when examining gun laws. The 2022 decision said modern gun laws must have direct historical analogues to withstand judicial scrutiny.

The judges who issued Tuesday’s ruling agreed with the lower court’s decision, with Benton writing: “Minnesota’s proffered founding-era analogues do not meet its burden to demonstrate that the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation supports the Carry Ban.”

The appeals court also rejected Minnesota’s argument that its ban was a necessary public safety measure because, the state claimed, “18 to 20-year-olds are not competent to make responsible decisions with guns and pose a risk of dangerousness to themselves and to others as a result.”

Benton said in his ruling that Minnesota didn’t provide evidence to that end, writing that “even using these recent (state crime) statistics, it would be a stretch to say that an 18-year-old ‘poses a clear threat of physical violence to another.’”

Andrew Willinger, the executive director of the Duke Center for Firearms Law, said the appeals court ruling “highlights how much the historical focus shifts courts away from scientific evidence about brain development.”

“The panel seemed to require statistical evidence that 18- to-20-year-olds were more than 33% more likely to misuse firearms than other age groups; rather than evidence that brain development might make that age group prone to errors in judgment as a general matter and thus less trustworthy with guns,” Willinger told CNN.

The ruling is now a legal precedent covering the six other states in the 8th Circuit – North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Arkansas – and the decision could be used to challenge similar age restrictions in those states.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said he was “extremely disappointed” in the court’s ruling, which he argued would undermine efforts to protect the public from gun violence.

“The people of Minnesota want and deserve solutions that reduce shootings and improve public safety, and today’s ruling only makes that more difficult,” Ellison, a Democrat, said in a statement. “Despite this setback, I remain as committed as ever to improving public safety in Minnesota by championing and defending lifesaving, common-sense gun violence prevention measures.”

Meanwhile, the gun rights group Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, which was among the organizations that challenged the law, cheered the decision.

“This is a resounding victory for 18-20-year-old adults who wish to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms,” Bryan Strawser, the group’s chairman, said in a statement.

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