ST. PAUL, Minn. – The Minnesota Senate voted 34-33 to amend the 2023 public safety bill with specific provisions aimed at reducing gun violence. The bill was word-for-word what earlier came out of joint Senate House committee. The House, meanwhile, scheduled itself to take up the same provisions, probably over the weekend. The new provisions would toughen background checks on anyone buying a firearm. Another provision would allow confiscation of a gun from anyone threatening to shoot another person or to commit suicide. The chair of the Senate’s Public Safety Committee, Ron Lanz, a Democrat elected from St. Louis Park, said this second provision should be a relief for families and also police who see rising signs of instability. “It will give them lawful tools to separate people in crisis from the firearms that are around them.” The package also includes tougher restrictions on no-knock arrest warrants.
Political dynamics
Senate Republicans had hoped an alliance with rural Democrats would head off the gun control provisions. The alliance began crumbling when Senator Grant Hauschild, a Hermantown Republican, broke away and pledged to support the overall 522-page bill – even with the gun restrictions.