PRESS RELEASE: Supreme Court Strikes Down Minnesota’s De Facto Ban on Homemade Firearms

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 7, 2025

ST. PAUL, MN — The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Minnesota’s decades-old serial-number statute applies only when federal law independently requires a serial number, namely firearms subject to the National Firearms Act (1934), reversing a lower court’s decision. This ruling will have a significant impact on peaceable gun owners in Minnesota, particularly those who manufacture firearms for personal use or own firearms manufactured before 1968, when federal law began requiring serial numbers from manufacturers.

“Peaceable gun owners shouldn’t have to fear being turned into criminals because a county attorney wants to push a political agenda,” said Rob Doar, Senior Vice President of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “The Court stopped that overreach and clarified that prosecutors are bound by what the law says — not what they wish it said.”

Bryan Strawser, Chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, added, “Today’s decision is a decisive rebuke to the MN Attorney General and the University of Minnesota’s anti-gun law clinic, who tried to twist the law beyond its plain meaning. Minnesotans who lawfully build personally manufactured firearms and possess pre-1968 firearms have always acted within the law. The court’s decision today confirmed that fact.”

The ruling also undercuts the felony case against Becker resident Walker Anderson, who faced charges for possessing a privately made firearm without a serial number. The MN Gun Owners Caucus echoes the call today from Senator Andrew Mathews and Rep. Shane Mekeland for charges in this case to be immediately dropped by the Sherburne County Attorney.