Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision to allow 18- to 20-year-olds to publicly carry a firearm in the state.

The attorney general on Tuesday asked for the entire Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals to rehear the case after a three-judge panel unanimously ruled against the state of Minnesota on July 16.

“The public safety benefits to banning open carry by people under 21 years of age are clear,” Ellison said in a Tuesday news release announcing his office had filed the petition.

If the court doesn’t grant a rehearing, adults under 21 could start applying for a Minnesota permit to carry seven days after the denial. But there are other routes Ellison could take that push that back, including taking the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, one of the gun-rights groups in the lawsuit, called the appeal “a further delay that deprives 18-20 year old adults from exercising their right to bear arms.”

An Eighth Circuit decision could come sometime in August.

While the Eighth Circuit panel said the state can’t enforce the law anymore, Ellison’s office said the law remains in effect as a lower court ruling stayed the law’s overturning until the appeals process is complete. Tuesday’s petition extends the process.

The case

In 2021, a group of gun-rights groups and people under 21 challenged Minnesota’s age limit for permits to carry, arguing it violated the constitutional rights of people legally considered adults.

One of the plaintiffs, Kristin Worth of Mille Lacs County, said she wanted to carry a handgun for self-defense over concerns about crime and fears about walking alone to her car after closing down the grocery store where she worked.

Last year, a Minnesota District Court found the state’s age limit of 21 to carry a gun in public unconstitutional. The state appealed the case, but a few weeks ago the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s decision.

Those groups prevailed under a new precedent set by a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court case, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Bruen, which called for a new judicial test that expanded the scope of the Second Amendment, which protects the right to bear arms.

“Ordinary, law-abiding 18 to 20-year-old Minnesotans are unambiguously members of the people,” wrote Judge William Duane Benton in the court’s opinion, joined by Judges Lavenski R. Smith and David R. Stras. “Because the plain text of the Second Amendment covers the plaintiffs and their conduct, it is presumptively constitutionally protected.”

Ellison asked the appeals court to revisit its decision in light of another landmark U.S. Supreme Court gun ruling in June, United States v. Rahimi. Since the Supreme Court gave new guidance for evaluating gun law challenges in that case, which upheld a prohibition on domestic abusers possessing guns, the case should be revisited, the attorney general argues.

The Eighth Circuit was the first appeals court to overturn a state law restricting possession to people 21 and older, Ellison’s office noted.

Permit-to-carry law

Minnesota enacted its permit-to-carry law in 2003.

Applicants must take an approved firearms training course and apply at their local sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office then investigates the applicant’s background before deciding whether to issue a permit.

Minnesota’s permit-to-carry law allows for the concealed and open carrying of firearms. Other states, such as Wisconsin and North Dakota, allow for open carrying of firearms under certain circumstances without a permit.

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