Minn.Stat. 624.7142 Prohibits Only Carrying a Pistol On Or About The Person's Clothes Or Person

State v. Prigge, Minn.Ct.App., 7/31/2017.  It is unlawful to carry a pistol while under the influence of alcohol "on or about the person's clothes or person."  Minn.Stat. 624.7142, Subd. 1(4).  An officer stopped and then arrested Mr. Prigge for driving under the influence of alcohol.  The officer then impounded Mr. Prigge's car, which led to an inventory search. That search turned up a loaded handgun in the bottom of the car's center console compartment.  

The trial court granted Mr. Prigge's pretrial motion to dismiss, concluding that Mr. Prigge was not carrying the pistol "on or about his clothes or person.  The state brought this pretrial appeal.

Now, not three months ago the court looked at this same statute and concluded that it covered one who is walking down a public street "carrying" an unloaded pistol in a case.  State v. Larson.   Different facts, however, gets a different result:  The court of appeals affirms the trial court.  The statute, the court says, is not ambiguous, so it's time to haul out the dictionaries. "Carry" means "to hold or support while moving; bear," or "to hold or be capable of holding."  The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 285 (5th ed. 2011).  The court also looked to another statute, 624.714, subdivision 1a, which also prohibits drunks from "carrying" a pistol in public places but provides a more expansive description of "carrying":

A person . . . who carries, holds, or possesses a pistol in a motor vehicle . . . or on or about the person’s clothes or the person, or otherwise in possession or control in a public place . . . without first having obtained a permit to carry the pistol is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. 

It's those missing italicized words that saves the day for Mr. Prigge. Faced with the different language in the statutes the court is unwilling to include "carrying" a pistol in the center console:

The plain statutory language of section 624.714 prohibits a much broader range of conduct than section 624.7124. If the legislature intended the prohibition under section 624.7124 to extend to carrying, holding, or possessing a pistol in a motor vehicle or otherwise possessing or controlling the pistol, it could have done so by using the language it selected for section 624.714. It did not.