The Supreme Court rejected a Minnesota appeal regarding the state’s attempt to prevent young adults from obtaining permits to carry firearms in public.
Minnesota appealed a ruling that said a law banning 18 to 20-year-olds from applying for such permits violated the Second Amendment, which gives citizens the right to bear arms.
The court’s decision to decline Minnesota’s opportunity to give further arguments on the law before the high court signals its continued support of the Second Amendment and gun rights in the country. The Supreme Court’s conservative majority could target similar laws in the future.
The Minnesota gun law was enacted in 2003. Many other states, and Washington, D.C., have similar laws.
Minnesota previously argued the law is necessary because people under the age of 21 aren’t competent enough to make responsible decisions about guns and pose a danger to themselves and others. Gun violence is a leading cause of death for the 18 to 20-year-old age group.
Rob Doar, senior vice president for government affairs of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, which sued to overturn the law, said people who hold carry permits are “overwhelmingly law-abiding.”
A federal judge struck down the law in 2023 before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concurred, leading the state to look to the Supreme Court.
The court also declined to hear a challenge to the University of Michigan’s ban on possessing firearms on campus.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison called the appeals court’s original decision to uphold the ban “extremely disappointing.”
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“This epidemic of gun violence will continue unabated unless we do something about it,” Ellison said in a statement. “Unfortunately, the Supreme Court’s Bruen ruling made that far more difficult by opening the floodgates to litigation from gun advocacy groups looking to undo reasonable safety legislation. … 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 also noted that the ruling came just days after a 20-year-old gunman shot at President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.