A Minnesota state senator says he will push to ban difficult-to-trace “ghost guns” after a state Supreme Court ruling said they were legal.
Earlier this week, the court said that state law does not clearly restrict Minnesotans from possessing ghost guns without serial numbers. Supreme Court Justice Paul Thissen wrote that the final decision on whether and how the guns — which are sold in parts and assembled by the user — are regulated rests with the Legislature.
“The ball is back in our court. It’s up to us now to redo the statute,” said Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, the chair of the chamber’s Judiciary Committee.
A ban is necessary because of the rising popularity of DIY guns that are easier for criminals to obtain and more difficult for law enforcement to track, Latz argued.
“Our goal is to basically find a way to ban ghost guns,” he added.
Latz told the Minnesota Star Tribune he has not yet reached out to Republican colleagues to gauge their support. He was hopeful his effort would garner bipartisan support. A yes vote from at least one Republican in the evenly-split House will likely be necessary for the bill to clear the Legislature next session.
“I know there are going to be Second Amendment concerns that will be raised,” he said. “ I respect that, and I’m prepared to address those concerns as they come up.”
A state-level ban would likely be constitutional, said Megan Walsh, director of the Gun Violence Prevention Law Clinic at the University of Minnesota Law School. The state Supreme Court ruling did not address the constitutionality of regulating ghost guns, and a recent Court of Appeals ruling also said that such a ban passes constitutional muster, she said.
