Minnesota law doesn't prohibit individuals from building their own firearms, but the state does require that the builders include a unique serial number on every one of their home-built rifles, pistols, and shotguns.
According to the Minnesota Supreme Court, that provision is null and void, at least when it comes to firearms that aren't required to be serialized under federal law.
The opinion from the state's high court stems from an incident in 2022 where a man involved in a rollover car crash informed police about a pistol inside his vehicle. The privately-built firearm wasn't serialized, which led to a charge of felony possession of a firearm without a serial number (as well as another charge of carrying without a permit).
A Minnesota statute written in 1994 criminalized receiving or possessing a firearm that is "not identified by a serial number."
Judge Paul Thissen wrote in the majority opinion that the statute references federal law. Minnesota does not have an independent system in place to require serial numbers to identify firearms, and the statute does not clearly define what the serial number would reference. The court determined that the statute criminalizes possessing a firearm not identified by a serial number "only if federal law requires that the firearm have a serial number."
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus applauded the state Supreme Court's decision, saying in a statement that it will have a "significant impact on peaceable gun owners" in the state, "particularly those who manufacture firearms for personal use or own firearms manufactured before 1968, when federal law began requiring serial numbers from manufacturers."
“Peaceable gun owners shouldn’t have to fear being turned into criminals because a county attorney wants to push a political agenda,” said Rob Doar, Senior Vice President of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “The Court stopped that overreach and clarified that prosecutors are bound by what the law says — not what they wish it said.”
Bryan Strawser, Chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, added, "Today's decision is a decisive rebuke to the MN Attorney General and the University of Minnesota's anti-gun law clinic, who tried to twist the law beyond its plain meaning. Minnesotans who lawfully build personally manufactured firearms and possess pre-1968 firearms have always acted within the law. The court's decision today confirmed that fact."
The ruling also undercuts the felony case against Becker resident Walker Anderson, who faced charges for possessing a privately made firearm without a serial number. The MN Gun Owners Caucus echoes the call today from Senator Andrew Mathews and Rep. Shane Mekeland for charges in this case to be immediately dropped by the Sherburne County Attorney.
The felony charges Anderson is facing should absolutely be dropped, given the state Supreme Court's decision. But gun owners should also get ready for Democrat lawmakers to start pushing legislation that would specifically require homemade guns be serialized, even if that means coming up with a serialization scheme of their own.
That was essentially what Thissen wrote in the majority opinion, putting the onus on the legislature to address this so-called problem.
In the majority opinion, Thissen wrote that ghost guns without serial numbers "pose real dangers to public safety and the proper regulation of such weapons is an important policy issue. Many states have regulated ghost guns through the legislative process, yet Minnesota has not acted."
One lawmaker is already vowing to change that.
Senator Ron Latz (DFL – St. Louis Park) has already announced plans to introduce legislation in 2026 to require that ghost guns have serial numbers.
In a statement, the senator said, “No one could’ve foreseen a world where you could print the parts to make a gun at home, but that’s the world we live in today. This decision makes it clear that our state gun laws need to reflect this new reality and the increasing prevalence of ghost guns.”
For better or worse it's become much easier to build our own firearms over the past couple of decades; for both lawful and unlawful purposes. Serialization requirements don't change that fact. They may allow for prosecutors to bring a charge after a gun is discovered, but they do nothing to stop bad actors from building their own guns in the first place.
Meanwhile, individuals who had no criminal intent can get charged with felonies for simply possessing an unserialized firearm. Just look at the case of Dexter Taylor, who was sentenced to a decade behind bars in New York for the "crime" of building his own unserialized (and unregistered) firearms.
We need to be punishing violent crime, not putting more possessory laws on the books. Still, expect Minnesota Democrats like Latz to make a major push to impose new requirements on homebuilt guns next session... if they don't try to outlaw their possession entirely.
