US Court Rules People Under 21 Years Old Can't Be Banned From Carrying Firearms

Illustration of firearms stores. (Wikimedia Commons/Thayne Tuason)

JAKARTA - The federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the Minnesota Act requiring a person aged at least 21 years before obtaining permission to carry firearms in public to defend himself is unconstitutional.

The United States 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, centered in St. Louis, sided with gun rights groups in finding the state's ban on violating the rights of people aged 18 to 20 based on the Second Amendment to the US Constitution to own and carry firearms.

Judge Appealing Total Benton, one of the panel of three judges, stated that based on the recent US Supreme Court ruling that had expanded its firearms rights, the 2003 state law could not be considered legal.

"What's important is that the original text of the Second Amendment has no age limit," he wrote.

The panel upheld the lower court judges' decision last year in favor of the Second Amendment Foundation, Firearms Policy Coalition and Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, a gun rights group that has sued with some of its members.

Gun rights groups have filed similar lawsuits challenging age-based restrictions to carry firearms in other states, including in Georgia, Illinois, and Pennsylvania.

Judge Benton cited an important 2022 ruling by a conservative majority of the US Supreme Court called the New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen which changed the landscape of firearms regulation.

The ruling stipulates a new test to assess the firearms law, saying restrictions should be "consistent with the country's historical tradition of firearms regulation."

Earlier, the Supreme Court in its 8-1 decision in the United States v. Rahimi in June clarified the standard when enforcing a federal ban on people under orders of detention of domestic violence to possess weapons, saying modern firearms restrictions do not require a "historical herd" law.

Citing the decision, Judge Benton said regulations that strip people's weapons that pose a real threat to other people's physical safety could be enforced, but Minnesota has not yet determined why children aged 18 to 20 pose certain risks justifying the law.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a Democrat whose office defended the law, said in a statement he was "deeply disappointed" by the ruling.

"The Minnesota people want and have the right to a solution that reduces shootings and improves public safety, and today's ruling only makes it even more difficult," he said.