In layman’s terms: a county court has ruled that a law banning binary triggers is unconstitutional because it was passed as part of a state-level omnibus bill.
In some good news out of an unlikely state, a county judge in Minnesota has overturned a ban on binary triggers, but not on Second Amendment grounds.
On August 18, in a case named Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus v. Walz, the state-level gun rights group received victory in a 25-page decision penned by Ramsey County Judge Leonardo Castro, in which he not only affirmed that the law was enacted in violation of Minnesota’s Constitution, but also called into question the constitutionality of the entire omnibus bill:
Therefore, Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment must be granted, and the only question is which remedy is appropriate: wholesale invalidation of the 2024 Omnibus Bill or severance of the offending portion now before the court. Out of respect and deference for Minnesota Supreme Court precedent favoring severance wherever possible, this court will go no further than severing the Binary Trigger Amendment from the 2024 Omnibus Bill. But make no mistake, during the late hours of May 19, 2024, lawmaking did not “occur within the framework of the Constitution.”
“This case was never just about binary triggers—it was about stopping politicians from shredding our Constitution to push their anti-gun agenda. The Walz administration thought they could sneak a gun ban into a 1,400-page tax bill, but the court said otherwise. We’ve now set a clear precedent: if lawmakers try to game the system and hide restrictions in omnibus bills, we’ll drag them into court and beat them. That’s how we defend gun rights—and that’s why we keep winning,” said Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus Chairman, Brian Strawser, in a statement to News2A.
Minnesota banned binary triggers during the 2024 legislative session as a part of a 1,400+ page omnibus bill, and the ban took effect on January 1, 2025. Under the new law, possessing a binary trigger is a criminal act for which a person can be sentenced to 20 years in state prison and a fine of not more than $35,000. The new law redefined “trigger activator” under state code to include binary triggers, which it defines as “a device that allows a firearm to shoot one shot on the pull of the trigger and a second shot on the release of the trigger without requiring a subsequent pull of the trigger.”
As we previously reported, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus challenged the ban on the grounds that it violated the state Constitution by including it in an omnibus bill that related to “the operation and financing of state government.” Their complaint noted that the Minnesota legislature has been reprimanded by the state Supreme Court for similar actions previously:
The Minnesota Supreme Court has repeatedly warned the legislature to follow the Single Subject and Title Clause, expressing increasing concern about its violation and the chaos that could result in the “likely possibility […] that if an improper provision is included in a major appropriation law the entire law could fall.”
Much like the federal government, omnibus bills are often used to push through measures that would otherwise have failed on single-vote actions. On other fronts, Minnesota has been aggressively fighting against individual gun rights, as we’ve reported extensively, including efforts to undermine state preemption law and bizarre and impractical definitions of “public places” as it relates to gun rights.
