Justice Department Files Suit Over Minnesota’s Permit-To-Purchase Scheme

As promised, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and Second Amendment Section have officially filed suit against the state of Minnesota over its idiotic permit-to-purchase scheme, which essentially imposes a waiting period of up to 30 days on most handgun and semi-automatic long gun sales. 

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon sent a pre-litigation demand letter to officials a few days ago encouraging them to enter into talks with DOJ and avoid this lawsuit, which is standard procedure for her, but like virtually every other anti-gun regime she’s targeted, those officials chose instead to keep their questionable laws in place and defend them in court and in the press. 

“Given the recent, shocking, and tragic instances of gun violence in Minnesota, it is astonishing that the Trump administration is devoting its resources to attacking Minnesota’s police departments and the state’s common-sense background check laws,” Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said about the lawsuit. “These laws, which Minnesota’s elected representatives passed democratically, are in place to ensure permits to purchase or transfer handguns and assault rifles are issued only to eligible purchasers. It should disturb every single Minnesotan that Donald Trump’s Department of Justice is trying to make Minnesota less safe.”

Ellison’s explanation for the challenged law is completely circular and utterly nonsensical. The permit-to-purchase law is in place to ensure that permits-to-purchase or transfer firearms are issued only to eligible purchasers? 

Firearm sales and transfers in Minnesota are conducted with a background check, and it doesn’t take 30 days to perform one. The permit-to-purchase requirement simply adds a layer of needless bureaucracy to what should be (and in most states is) a pretty simple process. 

Does it actually ensure that only eligible purchasers are getting their hands on firearms? Ellison mentioned the “recent, shocking, and tragic instances of gun violence” in the state, so I’m guessing the answer is “no.” And if those shocking and tragic incidents were committed by individuals who had gone through the permit-to-purchase process, then I’d say that’s pretty solid evidence that the law can’t predict who might become violent in the future. 

As for Ellison’s argument about Minnesota lawmakers passing these restrictions “democratically,” so what? If the Attorney General honestly thinks that any law approved by the legislative branch automatically rises above any constitutional considerations then he has no business playing any role in government. Lawmakers can (and do) color outside the lines and adopt statutes that go well beyond their powers, and that’s what Minnesota has done here with its permit-to-purchase scheme. 

It is unconscionable to make someone wait up to a month before they can purchase the most common self-defense tool around, and the carveout for those with a concealed carry permit is no remedy for those who have an immediate need to acquire a gun for personal safety, since an applicant is going to have to undergo their mandatory training, fill out an application, and wait for their permit to be issued. In Minnesota that could also take 30 days or more, so a first-time gun buyer who wants a handgun because her stalker or abuser is signaling their violent intentions has no recourse but to twiddle her thumbs or break the law and get a gun through illicit means.  

That’s not some hypothetical. I was talking yesterday with a firearms instructor who’s attending Gun Rights Policy Conference this weekend, and they told me about a client who was murdered by her abuser while she was waiting for her gun license to be approved. These state-imposed delays come with a price, and for some gun buyers those delays can cost them their lives. 

No Second Amendment advocate, including Dhillon, is trying to make Minnesota less safe. She and her colleagues are trying to make Minnesota accountable to the Constitution by removing this infringement to our right to keep and bear arms, and I’m rooting for the Civil Rights Division to succeed.   

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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