A Minnesota District Court Judge on Monday struck down a state law banning binary triggers on guns.
The decision came in response to a Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus lawsuit which argued the ban, tucked into Minnesota's 1,400 page spending and policy bill passed by the DFL during the 2024 legislative session, violated a clause in the Minnesota Constitution requiring bills to embrace no more than one subject.
Lawmakers outlawed binary triggers which allow two bullets to be fired with one pull-and-release motion after the devices were used in the deadly shootings of law enforcement in Burnsville, and in Fargo, North Dakota.
WCCO Radio political analyst Blois Olson says the District Court Judge's ruling also appears to be a warning to state lawmakers.
"He went on to say, the legislature needs to be careful," says Olson. "It needs to stop doing these huge, 1,400-page bills, the mega omnibus, whatever we called it, because there's too many laws in there, on too many subjects that also could be invalidated."
Olson tells Vineeta Sawkar on the WCCO Morning News says legislators will likely proceed more carefully in the future.
"And he actually kind of suggested people should challenge other laws within that bill because they would probably be pulled back too," Olson added. "I don't think that's gonna unravel the bill, but I think it's gonna, you know, give the legislature a little more consciousness as they do this going forward."
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says he'll appeal the ruling.
“Today, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus ended Minnesota’s binary trigger ban,” said Bryan Strawser, Chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “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.”