Do cars count as public spaces? Minnesota Supreme Court takes up question in BB gun case

SAINT PAUL  (CN) — Minnesota prosecutors argued in front of the state Supreme Court on Monday that private cars can be considered public places, and activity in them can be criminally charged as such.

In 2022, Kyaw Be Bee was arrested for having a loaded BB gun under his car seat while on a Saint Paul public roadway. He was charged under a 2022 state law with having a firearm in a public place.

The court now is left to decide what constitutes a public versus a private space; whether or not your geographical and spatial locations can override one another; and what exactly the Legislature intended with its laws governing firearms in public places.

“To focus the law on the method of transportation upon a public roadway, instead of the geographic area of the roadway itself, ignores the clear statutory text, renders portions of the statute ineffective, leads to absurd results and is therefore not reasonable,” Saint Paul city attorney Lyndsey Olson, who argued for the state, told justices Monday.

However Drake Metzger, an attorney for Bee, said the statute is “unambiguous” about what makes a space public.

The law defines public space as “property owned, leased, or controlled by a governmental unit and private property that is regularly and frequently open to or made available for use by the public.”

Lawmakers included exceptions for hunters; target shooters; people’s homes or business; and gun shows and shops.

What the law doesn’t address is whether or not a private vehicle is considered a public place; it simply says that if a gun is being transported in compliance with the law, the statute does not apply.

“At the end of the day, the inside of a motor vehicle is not a public space under this definition,” Metzger said Monday.

A state court initially threw out Bee’s charge, saying there was no probable cause because a private car is not a public place. The Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed that decision, ruling that being on a public roadway trumps being in a private vehicle, and the state Supreme Court granted review of that finding.

Also at issue is whether or not prosecutors charged Bee with the right crime to begin with, since it’s against the law in Minnesota to carry a firearm without a permit or transport it unloaded and in an enclosed case.

Bee did not have a permit to carry and the loaded BB gun was under his car seat.

Metzger told the court Bee could have been charged with that crime, specifically because the legislation includes language that highlights having a firearm in a vehicle.

Conversely, if the Legislature meant to include a private vehicle as a public space under the statute Bee was charged with, he argued, that language would be in the text.

Olson, arguing for the state, saw it differently.

“I don’t think that this is saying that being in a motor vehicle inherently means that you’re in a public place,” Olson said. “It depends on the geographical place that the vehicle is on.”

Bee could have been charged with another crime as well, Olson said, public safety is at the root of gun laws.

“The consequences of a particular interpretation excluding vehicles on public roadways from public space could risk public safety by allowing the gun possession within vehicles without restriction,” she said.

Metzger was also asked repeatedly by justices to address the private place within a public place argument on Monday.

“Why does the car insulate you from being with a firearm on government property?” Associate Justice Paul Thissen asked.

Metzger said it would be similar if you were inside a home.

“What does the district court do if the person has the BB gun in a backpack?” Chief Justice Natalie Hudson pressed.

The defense attorney replied that it would be a case-by-case analysis, and here, the court does not need to make a ruling that addresses backpacks.

“I think this court could simply hold that the interior of a private motor vehicle is not a public place for the statute,” he said.