Citing a technicality, a Ramsey County District judge overturned a 2003 law Tuesday allowing residents to carry a handgun.

The new law allows most adults to purchase a permit, providing they receive training, pay an application fee and pass a background check.

When the law was first proposed by State Rep. Tony Cornish of Good Thunder, Minnesota residents feared there would be a mad rush for such permits. In reality, 22,000 permits were issued statewide &045; about double the number of permits issued the previous year, but well short of the estimated 90,000 permits officials expected to issue after the law’s passage.

If overturned, the state’s handgun laws will revert to their previous form.

However, attorneys on both sides of the issue just aren’t sure what will happen. Attorney General Mike Hatch has promised an appeal, but even that hasn’t been filed, though it likely will be in the next couple of days.

The right to bear arms is guaranteed by our Constitution and despite the fear of some people that everyone would be walking around with concealed weapons, most people aren’t. There simply hasn’t been much of an impact by most standards.

The judge who overturned the law said it was wrongfully attached to a &uot;totally unrelated&uot; Department of Natural

Resources bill and the Constitution prohibits such.

The amount of confusion garnered in this issue must be put to rest very quickly and we urge the legislative and judicial branches to get their act together.

State residents simply must not remain in limbo over their right to carry handguns for very long because state officials are in disagreement.