Justice Department Sues Minnesota, Minneapolis and St. Paul Over Gun Purchase Waiting Periods

(KNSI) – The U.S. Justice Department is suing the State of Minnesota and the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, claiming the state’s permit rules for buying handguns and AR-15-style rifles violate the Second Amendment.

The complaint, filed Thursday in federal court, argues state law creates a waiting period of up to 30 days for anyone buying one of those guns without a permit to carry, even if the gun is only for protecting their home. The lawsuit also challenges waiting periods in St. Paul and Minneapolis, where it says some people have waited nearly 60 days.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, who heads the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, said, “When a person needs to defend their home, they need to defend it now.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison pushed back in a statement, saying the laws were passed democratically by Minnesota’s elected representatives to make sure permits to buy or transfer handguns and assault rifles go only to eligible buyers. He said it “should disturb every single Minnesotan” that the Justice Department is pursuing the case, arguing it would make the state less safe. Ellison also pointed to recent gun violence in the state, including a shooting at a Minneapolis apartment complex three weeks ago that left three people dead, including the shooter, and injured two police officers.

Under state law, buyers have two routes. They can fill out a transfer report and wait 30 days after it reaches their local police chief or county sheriff, or they can apply for a permit to purchase, which the police chief or sheriff has up to 30 days to approve or deny. The permit is good for one year, which the lawsuit argues amounts to a new waiting period every year. People who already hold a permit to carry skip the process. The complaint says more than 93% of Minnesotans don’t have one.

The same process applies statewide, including for buyers in the St. Cloud area, though the lawsuit names only the state and the two Twin Cities.

The Justice Department is suing under a 1994 federal law that allows it to go after a “pattern or practice” of police conduct that violates people’s constitutional rights. It argues officers in Minneapolis and St. Paul are carrying out that violation every time they process an application under the state law. Under recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, the state will have to show its rules fit the nation’s historical tradition of gun regulation. The complaint points to federal appeals court rulings that struck down a seven-day waiting period in New Mexico and a California law limiting buyers to one gun purchase every 30 days.

The Justice Department sent a notice to Governor Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her on September 17th warning of the lawsuit. It offered to hold off if the state and cities agreed to stop enforcing the laws, admit they’re unconstitutional and sign a court-enforceable agreement permanently blocking them, and it gave them until September 23rd to respond.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare the practice unconstitutional and permanently block the state and cities from enforcing the waiting periods.

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