The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Minnesota’s appeal seeking to reinstate a law barring 18- to 20-year-olds from carrying firearms in public.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Minnesota’s appeal seeking to reinstate its law prohibiting adults under the age of 21 from obtaining permits to carry firearms publicly, leaving intact a lower court ruling that found the restriction unconstitutional.

The justices, without comment, let stand the 2024 decision by the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that Minnesota’s age-based restriction violated the Second Amendment rights of adults aged 18, 19, and 20. The high court’s decision, detailed in the official order list, marks a significant moment in the ongoing national debate over gun rights and age limitations.

In its ruling last year, the Eighth Circuit concluded that the Second Amendment sets no explicit age threshold and that the state failed to show sufficient “historical analogues” supporting the ban, referencing the historical analysis framework established under the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision. The Bruen decision, which emphasized the need for gun regulations to align with the nation’s historical traditions, was central to the appeals court’s reasoning.

“If the regulation is consistent with the Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation, it does not infringe the right of the people,” the Eighth Circuit stated. Otherwise, it concluded, such regulations violate individual rights to keep and bear arms.

State lawyers argued to the Supreme Court that Minnesota already permits significant access to guns for individuals under 21, allowing supervised possession and use. Nevertheless, they contended that requiring individuals to be at least 21 to carry a firearm in public was a reasonable public safety measure.

Gun rights groups, including the Firearms Policy Coalition, challenged Minnesota’s law, asserting that it infringed on constitutional rights. Firearms Policy Coalition President Brandon Combs said in a March statement that Worth v. Jacobson “presents the perfect vehicle for the Supreme Court to take up this incredibly important issue and hold that all peaceable adults have the right to keep and bear arms.”

In addition to declining Minnesota’s appeal, the Supreme Court on Monday also left intact the University of Michigan’s ban on firearms on campus. The justices’ refusal to hear that separate case leaves the university’s restrictions in place.

Recent lower court decisions on similar age-related gun restrictions have produced mixed results. An appeals court in New Orleans struck down a federal law mandating that individuals be 21 to purchase handguns, while a judge in Hawaii upheld a ban preventing 18- to 20-year-olds from possessing firearms.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to New York’s post-Bruen concealed carry law, and in March, the Court upheld a federal rule targeting “ghost guns,” although that case did not directly address Second Amendment protections.