ST.PAUL, Minn. – A Democratic controlled joint Senate-House committee approved two gun violence prevention provisions into broad public safety legislation that’s moving through the Legislature. By unanimous voice votes, the all-Democratic House-Senate conference committee approved:
> Expanded background checks for gun transfers,
> A so-called “red flag law” to allow authorities to take guns temporarily from people deemed to be an imminent threat.
The conference committee vote suggests that Senate and House majority leaders, all Democrats, believe they have majorities to pass the provisions as part of a broad public safety funding bill. It would be difficult for rural Democrat legislators, most of whom are inclined against gun controls, to vote no on the broad funding bill. A failure of the broad bill would cut off state funds for police, prisons, courts and public defenders. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, which opposes any and all gun controls, said there had been too little public discussion and no testimony on the provisions. Democrats are ramming the provisions through the Legislature, the lobby said.
Verbatim
Ron Latz, a Democrats from St. Louis Park and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee chair, said neither provision bans firearms: “These bills focus on the people. Separating the firearms from the people who are resisting the law and ineligible to possess firearms and therefore shouldn’t have them — or people, because of the crisis that they’re in, are an immediate threat to the safety of themselves or their family or others around them.”