New Minnesota laws take effect Aug. 1. Here’s what you need to know.

Laws increasing the penalty for straw gun purchases and setting the age at which a child can ride shotgun in a vehicle take effect in Minnesota on Thursday.

The changes come a month after the July 1 enactment of new state funding provisions covering the likes of teacher literacy training and additional preschool seats, and include now the banning of vaping devices that look like school supplies and cellphone cases resembling guns.

Here are a few of the laws carrying August 1 effective dates:

The penalty for a straw purchase, which involves a person buying a firearm for someone who is ineligible to purchase or possess them, now increases from a gross misdemeanor to a felony.

Momentum behind the bill was ratcheted up after a man used two AR-15-style firearms to kill three first responders in Burnsville in February. The weapons allegedly were obtained via straw purchases made by the man’s girlfriend, authorities have said.

Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, said when the bill passed the Senate that the legislation, which also included a ban on binary triggers, an alleged factor in the Burnsville shooting, represented “one more step we can take to keep our families and law enforcement safe.”

The ban on the trigger devices, which enable guns to fire more than one shot with the pull and then release of a trigger, is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1.

“Swatting” incidents involving false emergency calls aimed at sending police to the homes of elected officials and others are rising from a gross misdemeanor to a felony.

The fictitious calls have targeted lawmakers and judges across the country, and hit home in Minnesota in January when someone tried to summon police and a hostage negotiator to the Delano home of Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer by claiming it was a murder scene.

Also covered under the law are corrections officers, judges, prosecuting attorneys and peace officers.

In addition, the Legislature has toughened a law prohibiting someone from making personal information about an election official and family or household members publicly available — a practice known as “doxxing.” The information covered by the law is expanded as of Thursday to include the officials’ home and cell phone numbers, and their minor children’s names.

Children no longer can ride on the front passenger side of a vehicle until they are 13 years old, under new car seat laws that also address booster and rear-facing to forward-facing seating.

Kids can begin riding in booster seats at age 4 and must remain in them until age 9, unless they reach the weight and height limit of a designated child passenger restraint system.

For younger children, rear-facing seats are required from birth to at least 2 years old, after which they can switch to forward-facing seats, provided again that they meet height and weight limits.

Some of the new laws address other aspects of transportation. One prohibits the towing of vehicles solely for being parked at an expired meter, as well as towing vehicles with license tabs that have been expired for less than 90 days.

Another provision allows oversized trucks to carry sugar beets after harvest on a few roads in East Grand Forks, among items of a more technical nature.