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ST. PAUL — Minnesota legislators are facing a torrent of hate mail and threats for proposing gun control measures, according to Sen. Jennifer McEwen, DFL-Duluth.

The bills in question, and its companion piece in the House, aim to block the sale and transfer of 17 different firearms in Minnesota, including the Colt AR-15, the widely known civilian version of the U.S. military's main service rifle. The bill would also ban the sale and transfer of semiautomatic weapons with a detachable magazine and different modifications such as a folding stock or a pistol grip. The bills would not ban the possession of the weapons and proposes a buy-back program for the weapons in question.

McEwen, who authored the Senate bill and introduced it last year, said she thinks that legislators are afraid to jump into the fray and introduce gun control laws because of the type of reactions they will get from people around the country.

"I don't know that people understand how scary that can be for legislators and when they're seeing that there's not action happening (on gun control) either at the state level or national level — that's a big part of it, that intimidation factor," she said. The only other issue for which legislators receive the same type of reaction is abortion-related bills, according to McEwen.

She introduced her bill last year after she saw another mass shooting take place in the country and expected it to be a starting point for a conversation about common-sense gun laws.

There were 656 mass shootings in 2023, 647 in 2022 and a record 689 in 2021, according to data from the , a Washington, D.C., research group that records gun violence incidents. There have been 49 mass shootings in 2024, according to the group.

As of now, both McEwen's bill and its companion House bill have been referred to committees but have yet to have a hearing. McEwen questions if the bills ever will.

"If we have a hearing, all of a sudden, all of that national intimidation and pressure shifts to the chairs of the committees that will have to hear the bill, it shifts to the members who are on those committees," she said.

While negative publicity may be a factor, committee chairs might also have different issues they feel should be addressed before gun control, according to McEwen.

"There has to be a real push from the people of this state to move forward in these ways for us to be able to move forward in this session, especially because it's a shorter session," she said.

In addition to the gun-sale bill, McEwen co-authors another bill, , which, in addition to the restrictions in McEwen's bill introduced last year, seeks to ban large capacity magazines, .50 caliber weapons, undetectable firearms and military-style weapons including the Colt AR-15. Sens. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, and Liz Boldon, DFL-Rochester, are also authors on the bill.

Under SF 3680, anyone who previously owned those weapons would be required to register them with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. There is no buy-back option currently proposed with the bill.

If either version of the gun-control bills proposed by DFLers becomes law in their current form, those convicted of violating the statute would be guilty of a felony and could face up to five years in prison.

"At the end of the day, we have weapons out in our community that really are not meant to be used recreationally, they're not even meant to be used for self-defense," McEwen said. "They are military weapons that are extremely dangerous and that have resulted in the murders of so many people."

While the bills are a product of years of gun-control advocacy, there are opponents, such as the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, that say the bills are unconstitutional and poorly worded.

"The bill seeks to end the ownership of modern rifles within a generation," Senior Vice-President of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus Rob Doar said.

Contributed / Minnesota Legislature

Doar also questioned how effective the bill would be, considering that most homicides involving a gun are from handguns.

Of the 193 homicides reported in Minnesota in 2022, rifles were involved in two, according to the 2022 Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Uniform Crime Report. Firearms were used in 82 homicides and handguns account for 46 of those. From 2021 to 2024, rifles were involved in 13 out of 724 homicide incidents, according to the BCA.

In light of the number of rifles used in homicides, Doar said the bill is neither prudent nor practical.

"The number of the rifles covered under this bill that are used in homicides is zero to one, on average," Doar said. "So we're talking about a massively expensive, likely unconstitutional measure that would, giving a large amount of deference that the intended result could be reached, prevent zero to one deaths a year."