A push for gun rights — including a “stand your ground” bill that drew a packed hearing — at the Minnesota Legislature did not get a bill to the governor’s desk.
Both proponents and opponents of gun-rights bills expected strong backing this year, given that Republicans had just taken control of both houses.
But Republican leaders of key committees say they didn’t want to push the bills when they were also working to craft a $46 billion budget for the state. They also anticipated strong opposition from DFL Gov. Mark Dayton, who has vetoed similar legislation in the past.
“From a global perspective, the Senate didn’t take it up, and the governor doesn’t seem interested. … Do you really want to take it up in a budget year?” said Tony Cornish, a strong gun-rights advocate who chairs the House’s public safety committee.
The bills received a hearing in Cornish’s public safety committee, but none in the Senate.
“Why waste a lot of political capital on something that won’t pass?” asked Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, who chairs the Senate judiciary committee, through which a gun bill would likely have to pass. Dayton had vetoed bills like the ones lawmakers worked on this year in the past, and said this year’s measures would meet a similar fate.
The author of the gun-rights bills that received a hearing, Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia, said he was “very disappointed that the Senate didn’t move on the bill. I’m just surprised that a duo Republican Legislature wouldn’t move it at this time.”
And Bryan Strawser of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, which lobbies for gun rights, said there are “a lot of people in House and Senate that have made campaign promises that will be held accountable in 2018.”
Strawser’s group endorsed Limmer in 2016, and gave him an “A” grade for his positions.
“He’s been very disappointing when it comes to delivering. But prior to now, he’s had an impeccable track record,” Strawser said.
The Rev. Nancy Nord Bence, executive director of Protect Minnesota, a gun-control advocacy group, said her group mobilized its base eight times this year — including four rallies.
She expressed exuberance that the bills hadn’t made it to either full House or Senate votes in 2017, but quickly added, “We have to remember they’re viable for another year.”
And when it came to opposing legislation, “It’s also an utter defeat for the three gun-prevention bills that didn’t even get a hearing.”
The two bills that received a hearing this year include a “constitutional carry” bill, which would have eliminated the need for a gun permit on public property entirely in most cases, and the “stand your ground” bill, which would have expanded the types of incidents in which it is legal to take another person’s life.
Current law allows a Minnesotan to use lethal force to stop a felony in their own homes. The “stand your ground” bill would have allowed lethal force to stop a variety of felonies, whether the potential victim was at home or not. In a home, a person could also have used deadly force in incidents they believed “in good faith” were “required to succeed in defense.”
Both bills received a hearing in Cornish’s committee, but never got any further. Proponents of the “stand your ground” legislation were anticipating a floor vote of the entire House in the Legislature’s final days, but that never materialized.
Legislation similar to the “stand your ground” bill reached the governor’s desk in 2012. At the time, Dayton said he opposed it due to strong concerns from the law enforcement community.
The hometown of Rep. Jim Nash has been corrected in this story.