The Trump Justice Department sued Minnesota over firearm purchase waiting periods that can stretch nearly 60 days, a system the DOJ calls intolerable under the Constitution.
President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice filed suit against Minnesota on Thursday over the state’s waiting period for firearm purchases, after first putting Gov. Tim Walz on notice earlier this month.
Breitbart News reported the filing followed a September 18, 2026 notice letter from Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon. The letter targeted Minnesota’s permit-to-purchase rules for handguns and certain rifles.
Minnesota gives residents two paths for handgun purchases: a Transferee Report or a Permit to Purchase. Neither is fast.
The Transferee Report takes 30 days for approval. Applicants seeking a Permit to Purchase must give police up to 30 days to grant it. Dhillon’s letter said residents wait up to thirty days to buy a firearm, and some have been forced to wait nearly 60 days.
A DOJ press release accompanying the suit made the constitutional case plain. Dhillon pointed straight at the Supreme Court’s recognition that the home is where the need for self-defense is most acute.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said in the release:
“The Supreme Court held that the home is where the need for defense of self, family, and property is most acute. When a person needs to defend their home, they need to defend it now, not thirty to sixty days from now.”
That is the core problem Minnesota’s process creates. A law-abiding buyer clears a background check and still sits for weeks. The danger does not wait for paperwork.
Dhillon drove the point further in the same release:
“Law-abiding citizens do not need government permission to purchase a firearm, and forcing a citizen who has already passed a background check to wait up to sixty days to obtain a firearm is intolerable under the Constitution.”
On September 18, 2026, the DOJ put Minnesota on notice that a lawsuit was coming. Dhillon’s letter went to Gov. Tim Walz and described the state’s permit-to-purchase scheme covering handguns and certain rifles.
The letter laid out the two options and the built-in delays. Police get up to 30 days to grant a Permit to Purchase. The Transferee Report path runs on a 30-day approval track. Some citizens still end up waiting nearly 60 days.
Thursday’s lawsuit turned that warning into a court fight. The press release made clear the administration will not treat a cleared background check as the start of another government holding pattern.
No court venue, docket number, or full complaint text was detailed in the initial reporting. Minnesota and Walz had not issued a public response in the available account of the filing.
The sequence matters. Federal and state systems already screen buyers. Minnesota then layers on a second gate that can run a month or longer.
For handguns, the state funnels people into the Transferee Report or the Permit to Purchase. Both routes hand time to the bureaucracy. Police control the clock on the permit path. The report path locks in its own 30-day stretch.
Dhillon called the overall approach a “scheme.” The label fits a process that treats a cleared buyer as someone who still needs permission to finish the purchase.
Self-defense timing is not abstract. A family facing a credible threat cannot schedule the danger around a county processing queue. The Supreme Court language Dhillon cited puts the home at the center of that need. Minnesota’s delays push the firearm out of reach during the window when it is most needed.
Lawful residents who follow the rules pay the price. The wait is not a technical glitch. It is the design.
The Justice Department’s position is straightforward. Once a citizen passes the background check, the state does not get to invent a fresh multi-week barrier.
Dhillon’s statements frame the wait as more than inconvenient policy. Forcing a cleared buyer to sit for up to sixty days crosses a constitutional line. The home-defense holding from the Supreme Court supplies the practical reason: defense is needed now.
Trump’s DOJ moved from the September notice letter to a formal lawsuit in short order. The press release tied the filing directly to those delays and to the claim that law-abiding citizens do not need government permission to complete a firearm purchase.
Minnesota’s rules still stand until a court says otherwise. The suit puts the waiting periods, the permit path, and the 30-to-60-day reality under direct federal challenge.
Gun owners who already cleared screening should not have to beg a bureaucracy for the right to protect their homes. Minnesota built the delay. The DOJ is now making the state defend it.
