Just when everyone was looking forward to the Minnesota State Fair after a painful hiatus due to COVID, along comes a gun advocacy group that is suing the State Agricultural Society, which controls the fair, and the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department, which is providing security.
Metal detectors are being used for the first time to help screen fairgoers. In a statement, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, which filed the suit on behalf of a Twin Cities preacher and a longtime firearms advocate, said that as an arm of state government, the society is "completely preempted under multiple state statutes from prohibiting the lawful carry of firearms on the state fairgrounds."
The lawsuit contends that "Minnesota law allows permitted carry even inside the State Capitol — an area more serious than the light-hearted State Fair."
We're not sure what "more serious" as opposed to "light-hearted" has to do with anything. It is simply a distraction, a fact without relevance. Yes, guns are allowed at the State Capitol. But they are not allowed in courthouses, another public space. Nor in churches, which are nonprofit. Nor at hospitals.
The proponents of this foolish, dangerous notion would have you believe that as a society we are unable to draw any lines, to make any distinctions. It's all or nothing. We allow guns everywhere or nowhere.
That has never been and should never be the case.
We are fully capable of assessing a situation, determining risk and setting boundaries. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison told an editorial writer that, contrary to the lawsuit, "there are state statutes that specifically allow institutions to keep out guns. That is a very sound law."
Let us state this as clearly as possible: Guns at the Minnesota State Fair is a terrible idea. It would fundamentally change the nature of the Great Minnesota Get-Together to see people with rifles slung over one shoulder or a Glock tucked into a holster amid fairgrounds packed with families, toddlers, seniors and teenagers.
