By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
Gun control is back on the front burner in Minnesota, and gun owners in the North Star State are on the front lines fighting back, a situation that became clear Thursday, the designated Minnesota Gun Owners’ Lobby Day at the state Capitol.
During a press event, the Rev. Tim Christopher stated, “They can drop all the gun bills they want. They’re not going to work.”
According to KNSI News, Democrat Gov. Tim Walz “is proposing restrictions on gun owners by imposing universal background checks on all gun sales, red flag laws to remove guns from people who could be perceived as a threat to themselves or others, raising the minimum age for purchasing military-style rifles to 21 years old and banning high-capacity magazines.”
He also wants to ban guns at the state Capitol.
“There’s just no reason we need handguns in recreational centers,” Walz reportedly said. “There’s no reason we need handguns in the state Capitol.”
But guns at the Capitol have apparently never been a problem. One former activist told TGM via email, “More than one legislator wrote on the website that they felt safer with the gun owners’ carrying at the Capitol than without them there exercising their constitutional rights to support their constitutional rights.”
During the press event, Minnesota Gun Owner Caucus Chair Bryan Strawser observed, “The governor yesterday pointed to California and the recent tragic mass shootings that happened there. California has all these laws and more. It did not stop a determined criminal from committing those atrocities.”
WCCO News noted Strawser’s colleague, Rob Doar, went on the offense against a proposal by St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter to prohibit guns at a recreation center in his city.
“It’s important to note that the shooter was an employee of St. Paul and prohibited by St. Paul policy in carrying firearms,” Doar said. “So, if you ask me, I’d rather have a firearm on me than be at risk of being fired at by one of Mayor Melvin Carter’s employees.”
Carter apparently tried to turn the discussion away from the shooter when he noted in a comment quoted by the Twin Cities Pioneer Press, “State law says we can’t ban people from carrying guns in recreation centers and libraries. That’s a law we’ve been trying to change since before that shooting happened … If everybody’s got a gun, then every conflict has the potential of turning into a gun fight.”
Writing recently at MinnPost, rights activist Robert Harris III observed, “I would argue that the Minnesota Legislature needs to instead take action to protect the Second Amendment rights of Minnesotans by rejecting so-called ‘common sense’ gun control measures. None of the mainstream gun control proposals offer solutions that would keep Minnesotans safer.”
Several paragraphs later, Harris adds, “Other proposals that DFLers have pushed include red flag laws, magazine capacity bans, silencers, ghost guns, and allowing victims of crime to legally sue gun manufacturers. None of these proposals improve public safety by getting guns out of illegal hands. The only thing that these proposals do is make more paperwork for law-abiding citizens and potentially even make us into criminals.”
