PRESS RELEASE: Minnesota Court of Appeals Affirms Victory for Gun Owners, Strikes Binary Trigger Ban as Unconstitutional

ST. PAUL, MN — The Minnesota Court of Appeals today affirmed the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus’s constitutional victory over Minnesota’s binary trigger ban, ruling that the Legislature violated the Minnesota Constitution’s single-subject clause when it buried the ban inside the sprawling 2024 omnibus bill.

In Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus v. Walz, the Court of Appeals agreed with Ramsey County District Court Judge Leonardo Castro that the binary trigger provision is not germane to the underlying subject of the bill and therefore cannot stand. The provision is struck. The binary trigger ban remains enjoined in Minnesota.

“This is a complete victory on the question we asked the court to decide,” said Bryan Strawser, Chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “The Walz administration and anti-gun legislators tried to sneak a firearms ban into an omnibus bill where it didn’t belong. The district court said no. The Court of Appeals said no. Minnesota’s Constitution, not legislative gamesmanship, controls how laws get made in this state, and Minnesota gun owners just proved it twice.”

“Today’s ruling is a warning to every legislator who thinks the single-subject clause is optional,” said Rob Doar, President of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center. “Two courts have now told the Legislature that you cannot bury gun control provisions inside unrelated bills and call it lawmaking. If anti-gun lawmakers try this again in 2026 or beyond, we will be back in court, and we will win again.”

The Court of Appeals declined to strike the entire underlying bill, narrowing its remedy to the binary trigger provision itself. That outcome is the textbook result the Caucus sought: the unconstitutional firearms restriction is severed and unenforceable, while the rest of the bill remains intact.

With today’s decision, Minnesota’s binary trigger ban is dead. The ruling affirms both the Second Amendment rights of Minnesotans and the constitutional requirement that the Legislature pass laws transparently, one subject at a time.

Learn more at gunowners.mn/binarysuit.