Gun safety bills may hinge on one senator’s fate despite House support, likely passage

Gun-safety measures were slated for votes on the Minnesota House floor late Monday although it wasn’t clear if or when the Senate would consider the bills.

“We are the House. We are going to continue to do the work of the House,” state Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview, said at a news conference hours before the anticipated passage.

The House passed the first bill, which would create a duty to report a lost or stolen firearm to law enforcement within 48 hours. Failure to do so would be a petty misdemeanor.

A second bill would require firearms to be stored securely, and the third bill would prohibit straw purchases of firearms and make it a felony to do so. A straw purchaser buys a gun for someone who is ineligible to purchase one. That bill also would require annual reports on gun trafficking and ban binary triggers, which allow regular guns to become automatic. Those bills weren’t taken up Monday but are expected to come up for votes this week.

Gov. Tim Walz supports all three bills, so if they make it to him he will sign them, a spokeswoman said Monday.

But in the Senate, the DFL needs unanimity among its 34 members to overcome opposition to the bills by the 33-member Republican caucus. The DFL has a larger margin in the House and when asked if the bills could pass the Senate, Moller said to ask Republicans why they don’t support the measures.

The challenge with the Senate grew more complicated last week as Sen. Nicole Mitchell, DFL-Woodbury, was charged with first-degree burglary. She returned to the floor Monday with Republicans trying to bar her from voting. DFLers held them off on party-line votes, meaning Mitchell will be able to vote.

Even with her vote, it wasn’t clear that the DFL Senate will have the votes or the time to consider new gun measures. Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, is considered to be a pivotal vote. He has not indicated what he would support and did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In an argument echoed by Republicans, Rob Doar, vice president and lobbyist for the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, said the bills are well-intentioned but contain confusing and unconstitutional language.

“These measures will penalize peaceable people without any measurable impact on public safety,” he said. “The focus should be on enforcing existing laws, which are more than sufficient to hold those with criminal intent or who act negligently accountable.”

Through close to four hours of debate on the 48-hour reporting requirement, Republicans argued the bill would criminalize law-abiding citizens. The bill passed 68 to 63 on a mostly party-line vote, a likely indication of how the other two bills would go. Rep. Dave Lislegard, DFL-Aurora, joined the Republicans in voting no.

Republican Reps. Brian Daniels of Faribault and Debra Kiel of Crookston were excused.

DFLers didn’t start out this session with stated plans for new gun measures, given the victories of 2023. The progress last year was so significant that former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords of Arizona came to the Minnesota Capitol twice last session to encourage passage and then to celebrate the signing of the bills. In 2011, Giffords was shot in the head in Tucson and has since became an activist for gun safety.

As part of the larger public safety bill last year, the Legislature required background checks for guns sold at shows or private transfers and created a red flag law allowing judges to remove guns from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.

In touting this year’s bills, Moller said firearms are the leading cause of death of children and adolescents in the United States. “Gun violence in Minnesota is an epidemic and DFLers this year are building on the gun violence prevention measures that we enacted into law last year,” Moller said. “The bills that we were hearing will save lives.”

Rep. Kaela Berg, DFL-Burnsville, is the sponsor of the bill making straw purchases a felony and banning binary triggers. She pointed out that the man who fatally shot three first responders in Burnsville in February had used a straw buyer to obtain guns that also came with binary triggers. “Because of the use of a binary trigger, our officers and firefighter paramedics had no time to mount a defense,” Berg said, adding that such triggers are banned in 13 states including Florida and Iowa.

Rep. Kaohly Vang Her, DFL-St. Paul, sponsored the bill to require mandatory reporting of missing firearms. She said stolen guns end up on the illegal market, a source of guns for those barred from owning them. She said 16 states already require reporting.

“This is a common-sense firearm bill,” Her said. “We have to get it across the finish line this year.”