Minnesota Supreme Court says it's legal to carry a ghost gun without a serial number

CBS News

07-08-2025

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that it is legal for Minnesotans to carry a ghost gun without a serial number.
The ruling stems from a case in 2022, when a state patrol trooper responded to a rollover crash in Fridley. The driver told the trooper that there was a pistol inside the car that he did not have a permit to carry. While searching the car, the trooper found the ghost gun, which did not have a serial number.
The man was charged with felony possession of a firearm without a serial number and carrying a pistol without a permit. He moved to dismiss the serial number charge, citing lack of probable cause.
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."
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."
Ghost guns are assembled from parts put together by people other than licensed manufacturers. Since they're made without a serial number, they're difficult to track.
Between 2016 and 2021, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said there were more than 45,000 suspected ghost guns recovered from crime scenes across the country.