Minneapolis Mayor Signs Gun Control Ordinance That Minnesota Law Says He Can’t Enforce
Scott Witner -
May 16, 2026
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey signed a sweeping gun control ordinance on Wednesday that bans semiautomatic rifles classified as “assault-style weapons,” magazines holding more than a state-set capacity, and unserialized firearms, and that the City of Minneapolis has limited authority to actually enforce.
The Minneapolis “Safe Firearms Act” was passed unanimously by the City Council the previous week. It now sits in legal territory that has already produced one active lawsuit in a neighboring Minnesota city and is poised to generate another. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, which filed suit against a similar St. Paul ordinance last fall and recently launched a dedicated Law Center to pursue Second Amendment litigation, has signaled it will sue over the Minneapolis measure as well.
What the ordinance does, and the law that says it can’t
The Minneapolis ordinance bans the sale and possession of so-called assault-style rifles, restricts magazines above a defined capacity, prohibits unserialized firearms (commonly referred to as “ghost guns”), and limits where firearms may be carried within the city. The framework largely mirrors gun control proposals that Democratic lawmakers in the state legislature have been trying to advance for years without success in a divided state government.
The fundamental problem with the ordinance is structural, and it predates the current political moment by four decades. Minnesota Statute § 471.633, the state firearms preemption law, states unambiguously:
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/minneapolis-gun-ban-preemption-lawsuit/
