Students in Minnesota Law’s Gun Violence Prevention Clinic have helped secure significant wins in landmark lawsuits against a retailer alleged to have sold dozens of firearms to straw buyers and an international gun manufacturer accused of producing semi-automatic handguns that can be easily converted into illegal machine guns.
The clinic, the first of its kind in the country, has achieved these results through a unique partnership with the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office — with students serving as special assistant attorneys general representing Attorney General Keith Ellison ’90 in both state and federal courts.
“It’s been astonishingly successful, both in terms of the results we’ve been able to get in the courts as well as the experiences that we’ve been able to give the students,” says Professor Megan Walsh, the clinic’s director. “From emotional moments that students have had to opportunities to do things that they never thought they could do.”
Legal Victories
The February 2026 settlement between the state and Fleet Farm in which the retailer agreed to adopt major policy changes to prevent further gun sales to straw buyers and to make a $1 million payment to the state.
Clinic students had been involved since the inception of the case, when Ellison alleged that Fleet Farm had negligently sold firearms to dozens of straw purchasers, worsening illegal gun trafficking across the state.
The turning point came when the state defeated Fleet Farm’s motion to dismiss, with students contributing to the briefing and legal strategy behind the effort. U.S. District Judge John Tunheim ’80 noted in his October 2025 ruling that one of the guns Fleet Farm sold to a straw buyer was used in a mass shooting at the Truck Park bar in St. Paul that killed one person and injured 14 others.
Prevailing against Glock Inc.’s motion to dismiss Ellison’s lawsuit against the handgun manufacturer and its Austrian parent company. The suit alleges that Glock manufactures, markets and sells semi-automatic handguns that it knows can easily be converted into illegal machine guns with a device known as a “Glock switch.”
The August 2025 ruling in Hennepin County District Court allows the state to proceed to seek discovery against Glock. Clinic students helped draft the complaint against Glock and contributed to the brief that defeated the company’s motion to dismiss.
Clinic students helped the state win the first precedential Second Amendment challenge in Minnesota since the U.S. Supreme Court altered the test for these challenges in 2022. The Court of Appeals’ ruling in State v. Gaal shaped a precedent that courts across Minnesota now cite, Walsh says. The clinic has been 100% successful in those cases in which it has defended the constitutionality of the state’s gun laws. No such challenges have come along in the last six months.
At the Minnesota Legislature, students have joined Walsh in testifying in support of strengthening school-based gun safety measures and tightening the state’s domestic-violence related gun surrender laws.
Walsh also testified before a Minnesota Senate committee in favor of the constitutionality of the extreme risk protection order bill, which passed in 2023. Such laws, sometimes referred to as "red flag” laws, enable relatives or law enforcement to move to temporarily prevent someone in crisis from accessing firearms.
In March, Walsh and litigation fellow Christian Purnell ’24 led clinic students to the U.S. Supreme Court to observe oral arguments in United States v. Hemani. The case centers on whether a federal law that prohibits firearm possession by people who are unlawful users of controlled substances violates the Second Amendment.
Partnering to Defend Gun Safety Laws
The clinic “brings deep expertise in Second Amendment and firearms law, and its students play a meaningful role in complex, high-impact cases,” Ellison says. “This innovative partnership adds real capacity to defend Minnesota's gun safety laws against constitutional challenges and hold the gun industry accountable through groundbreaking litigation. I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish together and excited about the next generation of lawyers the clinic is training to lead this work."
Through conducting legal research, drafting briefs, participating in oral arguments, and taking part in procedural hearings, students have gained expertise in Second Amendment law and litigation as well as experience that prepares them for the profession.
Real-World Experience Before Graduation
Clinic student attorney Safiyyah Khan ’26 says her skills in legal research and drafting had “definitely improved” through her work on the Glock case. She learned much about oral advocacy during simulations where she and others asked questions of attorneys while developing strategies and preparing to answer judges’ questions before real court appearances.
“The clinic experience has made me feel comforted in knowing that I’ll have practical, real-world legal experience upon graduation,” Khan says. “Working with other lawyers, with a larger team of different organizations, and seeing how a complex lawsuit operates has been a meaningful experience.”
Experiential learning opportunities were important to Khan, who took part in the Employment Law Clinic as a 2L. “Minnesota really seems to have a clinic for everything,” Khan says.
Working to Reduce Gun Violence Fallout
Heather Lea ’27 was among the latest group of clinic students to work on the Fleet Farm case when that matter settled.
“The goal of the clinic is to reduce trauma, death, and injury from instances of gun violence,” Lea says. “We all felt like this settlement was a big step toward that. The settlement, what it represents, and the hard work that the state and the clinic are doing are really important.”
Lea, who will serve as a clinic student director next year, says investigating pre-trial issues with other students has sharpened has her legal research and writing skills. She also has learned about being a “compassionate and cognizant lawyer,” something she says Walsh emphasizes.
“The issues we deal with can be heavy at times,” Lea says. “We’re talking a lot about how gun violence affects people and the impact that gun violence prevention has.”
The clinic, launched at the beginning of 2023, is moving forward with independent funding after three years as a pilot project.
“It’s been wildly successful, and the Law School is committed to keeping it going,” Walsh says. “We’re really excited about what’s to come.”