You’ve got to hand it to Minnesota. When it comes to clinging to unconstitutional garbage laws, they really put in the effort. But after years of kicking and screaming, the final gavel dropped: the United States Supreme Court just told Minnesota, “No, you can’t keep treating 18-to-20-year-old adults like second-class citizens.”
In case you missed it, here’s the rundown: Minnesota had been playing hall monitor with adults under 21, banning them from getting a permit to carry in public. Never mind that they’re old enough to vote, join the military, and be tried as adults. Apparently, trusting them with the Bill of Rights was just a bridge too far for the liberal brain trust running the state.
Well, they got their answer—and it wasn’t what they were hoping for.
The state’s carry age restriction law got obliterated in district court back in 2023. A judge ruled it violated Constitutional protections (because obviously it did). Minnesota, being a sore loser, appealed. In 2024, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals smacked them down again, making it crystal clear: unless you can dig up some historical evidence that 18-to-20-year-olds were always banned from carrying firearms in America, your little law isn’t going to fly.
Spoiler alert: Minnesota couldn’t find anything. Because it doesn’t exist.
But that didn’t stop them from continuing to enforce the unconstitutional ban like nothing ever happened—right up until April 21, 2025, when the Supreme Court refused to even hear their pathetic appeal. Case closed. Time to pack it up, boys. Freedom wins again.
The 8th Circuit was blunt: sure, governments can disarm dangerous people who are an actual threat to others. (Crazy concept, I know.) But 18-to-20-year-olds as a group? Minnesota failed—spectacularly—to show they’re some kind of ticking time bomb that needs disarming.
And let’s pause for a second here. How is it that a state can openly ignore two court rulings for years without consequences? You or I so much as sneeze the wrong way in front of a judge, and we’re doing a stint in county lockup. Minnesota bureaucrats, meanwhile, get to pretend court rulings don’t exist like a kid plugging his ears and yelling, “LA-LA-LA, I CAN’T HEAR YOU.”
Where’s the accountability? Where’s the compensation for the thousands of law-abiding young adults whose rights were stomped on while the state dragged its feet? You can bet your last dollar if a private citizen thumbed their nose at a court order for this long, they’d be learning about prison cuisine. But when it’s a blue state government? Crickets.
Now that the Supreme Court gave Minnesota the silent treatment, the law is dead. Kaput. No more barring adults under 21 from carrying a firearm in public. Not that Minnesota’s politicians will admit they were wrong, of course. They’re already spinning the narrative, calling the restriction “modest” and acting like they weren’t infringing on fundamental rights the entire time.
Yeah, real modest. Just like politely slamming a door in someone’s face is “modestly rude.”
Minnesota’s gun laws already let kids as young as 14 hunt without supervision and own firearms on private property. But apparently letting legal adults carry for self-defense crossed some invisible line in their minds. You know, the line where the Constitution becomes optional.
And in case you thought Minnesota was a lone wolf here, think again. After the Supreme Court’s landmark 2022 decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen—which told states they actually had to respect the Second Amendment—Democrat-run states went full tantrum mode, scrambling to invent new ways to strangle gun rights without technically saying that’s what they were doing. Minnesota just happened to be one of the loudest.
Now, to be fair, the Supreme Court’s move doesn’t technically create a nationwide precedent. It mainly applies to the 8th Circuit—Minnesota, Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. But the legal earthquake is going to rattle far beyond that.
Bill Sack, director of legal operations at the Second Amendment Foundation, nailed it: “This ruling will have reverberations nationwide.” His organization is already fighting similar battles across the country, trying to dismantle these illegal carry-age restrictions one state at a time.
Good thing, too. More than 30 states (plus D.C., because of course) still have similar unconstitutional nonsense on the books. It’s going to take a whole lot more lawsuits—and probably a few more Supreme Court smacks—to drag them back into compliance with the actual Constitution.
Minnesota’s lawyers had the gall to argue in court that judges “should not lightly set aside legislative attempts to address gun violence by young people.” Cute. But here’s the thing: no government has the authority to lightly set aside our rights just because they find the Constitution inconvenient.
And for the record, denying a law that violates the Second Amendment doesn’t stop lawmakers from addressing violence. It just means they can’t be lazy, unconstitutional tyrants about it. You want to stop criminals? Great. How about you start with the criminals, not 18-year-old kids who just want to defend themselves?
Minnesota tried to pull a fast one on the Constitution—and they got what they deserved.
Here’s hoping other states get the message loud and clear:
You don’t get to cherry-pick the Bill of Rights. Not now, not ever.
