Minnesota

State court: Juvenile convictions can void adult gun rights

A man convicted of a violent crime when he was a juvenile doesn't have a Second Amendment right to possess a firearm, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

Ryan Turnbull was convicted in Swift County District Court in 2007 after a conservation officer saw him carrying a gun during hunting season in 2006. He had been found delinquent in juvenile court in 2004 of felony drive-by shooting, dangerous weapons charges and criminal damage to property.

Turnbull, now 22, turned to the Court of Appeals to challenge a Minnesota law that says a person found delinquent of a violent offense is ineligible to possess a firearm. He argued the law is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms, and that he shouldn't have been deprived of that right without a jury trial.

Turnbull argued that his rights were protected by a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision last June that affirmed the right to have guns for self-defense in the home. The decision struck down a District of Columbia ban on handguns.

But the appeals court said the Supreme Court ruling was "very limited" and that the decision did not address whether the Second Amendment applies to the states. Tuesday's opinion said the Supreme Court and numerous federal and state courts have ruled in other cases that the Second Amendment does not apply to the states. It also said juveniles don't have a right to a jury trial.

In a separate, unpublished opinion, the appeals court affirmed the conviction in Kandiyohi County of Dean Gordon Ryks of being an ineligible person in possession of a firearm. He also sought unsuccessfully to use the Supreme Court decision to challenge his conviction.

Attorney John Mack, who represents both Turnbull and Ryks, said he hadn't seen the decisions but expected he would appeal them both to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

In another gun case, the Court of Appeals reinstated a charge against a Duluth strip club owner of carrying a firearm in a public place while under the influence of alcohol.

That decision said James Jay Gradishar, owner and manager of the Norshore Experience, told an off-duty officer working at the bar that he had a gun in his pocket, and acknowledged he'd been drinking. He had a permit to carry the gun. But the appeals court said he failed a breath test that indicated his blood alcohol level was 0.15 percent, almost double the legal limit for driving. The appeals court said a lower court erred when it determined that Gradishar's workplace didn't count as a public place under the relevant state law, so it was wrong to dismiss the charge.