By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Minnesota gun owners are celebrating after a Ramsey County judge struck down a ban on binary triggers, which increase the rate of fire on a semiautomatic firearm, saying the way the law was passed by majority Democrats was unconstitutional.
According to CBS News, the ban language was “tacked on in a last-minute amendment to a large tax bill before the DFL-controlled Legislature adjourned for the 2024 session.” Because of this, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus (MGOC) filed suit, successfully arguing the trigger ban was not remotely connected to the state’s operating budget, and therefore violated the state constitutional provision which states, “No law shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title.”
One veteran gun rights activist in Minnesota told TGM via private message, how back in 2004, Democrats “got the Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act declared unconstitutional because it was passed as part of an omnibus bill.” The ruling by Ramsey County District Court Judge Leonardo Castro was essentially karma.
Democrats control the legislature, and Judge Castro’s ruling—which only struck down the trigger ban but left other parts of the law intact—contained a message, quoted by CBS News: “But make no mistake, during the late hours of May 19, 2024, lawmaking did not ‘occur within the framework of the constitution. This Court respectfully suggests that if there has ever been bill without common theme and where ‘all bounds of reason and restraint seem to have been abandoned,’ this is it; and if there has ever been time for the ‘draconian result of invalidating the entire law,’ that time is now.”
Th e MGOC said in a statement to the media, “The Walz administration and anti-gun legislators tried to sneak an unconstitutional restriction into a massive omnibus bill. The court said no. Minnesota’s Constitution—not backroom deals—controls how laws are made in this state.”
“The State has repeatedly tried to bury gun control provisions inside sprawling omnibus bills. Today’s ruling makes clear that this practice violates the Minnesota Constitution, ” said Rob Doar, Senior Vice President of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “If lawmakers attempt to cram anti-gun measures into omnibus bills in the future, we will challenge them in court again—and our track record of victories should give them pause.”
The case is known as Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus v. Walz. Named as defendants were Gov. Tim Walz, Attorney General Keith Ellison, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty and Drew Evans, superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.
