GUNS

Minnesota to usher in new laws with New Year

Brielle Bredsten — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 12:00:00 GMT

ST. PAUL — With the new year comes several new statewide laws that go into effect on Jan. 1, 2025.

Laws passed during the last two legislative sessions will soon impact consumers, employment, health care services, housing and public safety.

Pricing transparency

The Ticketing Fairness Act restricts how online ticket sellers, bulk ticket buyers and resellers operate. The law bans deceptive advertising and speculative pricing, giving ticket buyers added protection. It also prohibits the use of bots to purchase tickets.

Another consumer law will prohibit businesses and people from advertising, displaying or offering a price for goods or services that doesn’t include all of the mandatory fees and surcharges, excluding taxes.

This particular law does not apply to fees authorized by law for motor vehicle purchases or leasing by a dealer. It also does not apply to real estate settlement services, except for broker commission and fees.

Employee pay

Minimum wage rates will be $11.13 an hour for all employers outside of the Twin Cities metro. The new law also increases the hourly training wage for workers under the age of 20 to $9.08. Annual earnings for those working 40 hours a week on minimum wage will now be $23,150 for both large and small employers outside of the metro. Employers are mandated to display updated wage rate posters, available for free at dli.mn.gov/posters.

Job postings will also require disclosure of the starting salary range or fixed pay rate, along with all benefits and other compensation. This provision of the 2024 Labor and Industry Policy Law, co-sponsored by Sen. Jennifer McEwen, DFL-Duluth, applies to businesses with more than 30 employees.

Coverage of abortion and gender-affirming care

Going forward, health plans must provide coverage for abortions and abortion-related services, including pre-abortion and follow-up services. Health plans cannot impose any cost-sharing or limitations for abortion care that are out of line with its other coverage offerings for similar services. Eligible or exempt organizations can choose not to cover these services, and therefore, health plan companies must cover the services with separate payments.

Medically necessary gender-affirming care must be covered by a health plan that also covers physical or mental health services. According to the American Medical Association, such services to treat gender dysphoria include mental health counseling and gender-affirming hormone therapy or surgery. Nonprofits and certain for-profit religious organizations may be exempt. Partial coverage must specify which services are not included.

Tenant rights

Tenant associations can now organize to improve housing conditions, amenities or community life. The new law prohibits landlords from retaliation, such as raising rent or filing legal action against tenant organizations for reporting code violations, contacting media or providing testimony regarding conditions of the premises.

If move-in dates change due to construction delays, the landlord must provide alternate housing, payment, lease termination, and return any payments incurred upon entering the lease agreement.

Gun control

Firearms with binary triggers will be banned in Minnesota. Binary triggers allow a gun to fire a round when the trigger is pulled and another round to be fired when it is released. The law makes owning or possessing a binary trigger a felony with a punishment of up to 20 years in prison, up to a $35,000 fine, or both.

For a complete list of laws passed in the 2023 and 2024 legislative sessions, visit house.mn.gov/newlaws.

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Minnesota lawmakers prepare gun control bills for 2025 despite low hope for passage

Mary Murphy — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 13:30:00 GMT

ST. PAUL — A ban on binary triggers and gun consumer protection were the only two bills of a handful of proposed gun control legislation that passed in 2023, when Democrats had majorities in both chambers of the Minnesota Legislature. As lawmakers approach the upcoming session with a split Legislature, they’re skeptical about gun control legislation’s mobility.

Two gun control bills set to resurface this year are the safe storage and lost or stolen firearms reporting bills. The safe storage bill mandates gun owners store firearms unloaded and equipped with a locking device or in a firearm storage unit. The reporting bill requires missing firearms to be reported to local law enforcement within 48 hours of discovering they’re gone.

Both bills passed the House and stalled in the Senate last session, but as the 2025 session approaches, lawmakers looking to bring the bills back see little hope.

Rep. Kaohly Vang Her, DFL-St. Paul, will reintroduce the reporting lost and stolen firearms bill. Though the bill passed the House, it was met with heavy resistance from gun rights advocates.

“It’s behavior that’s already done by gun owners,” said Rob Doar, senior vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “We didn’t think that legislation was necessary; it put gun owners in the position of trying to establish when they actually knew the firearm was stolen.”

Doar gave an example of why he found the timeline of reporting problematic.

“I’ve got a shotgun that’s stored up at my cabin, and it might be months before I actually realized that it was stolen,” Doar said. “But let’s just say that my neighbors say that I was up there, snow blowing the driveway and getting snow off the roof, well, the state could have said that that’s when I should have known that the firearms were stolen. It just added a lot of onus on people who weren’t actually engaging in any wrong behavior.”

Her said she will likely introduce the same language for the bill but is always open to conversation with partners and other legislators for amendments.

“This bill is actually very reasonable,” she said. “Even when you talk to gun owners, it’s reasonable to them. I think that the biggest contention is the penalty piece of it. And I mean, I’m open to negotiating language, but I also think that this is a very small penalty for … the result of what can happen with these lost and stolen firearms, right?”

The penalty, which starts as a petty misdemeanor and grows to a misdemeanor or gross misdemeanor depending on number of offenses, was another point of contention with the reporting lost or stolen firearms bill.

“The penalty is a petty misdemeanor, which is like a parking ticket,” said Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL–Plymouth, who plans to reintroduce the bill in the Senate. “It’s not a significant penalty. Now, if you have repeat offenses, it does go up from there, but the idea is really more to encourage people to engage in reporting.”

Nearly half of all lost and stolen firearms in the U.S. go unreported, according to Giffords, a law center for gun violence prevention.

As for safe storage, Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, plans to reintroduce the bill in the Senate, but the House author for safe storage last session, Rep. Jamie Becker Finn, DFL-Roseville, isn’t returning, and House media representatives confirmed the House has not assigned an author yet.

Safe storage would require Minnesota gun owners to store a firearm unloaded and equipped with a locking device or store it in a firearm storage unit. Doar says the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus also found this bill troubling.

“The earlier versions would have made it illegal to essentially have a firearm ready for self-defense in the home, because the ammo would have needed to be locked up and stored separately from the firearm,” Doar said, adding that 80 of 87 sheriffs opposed the bill. “It was unenforceable unless you’re going in and inspecting people’s homes for safe storage. There’s really no mechanism to try and enforce the law, and moreover, we already have laws in Minnesota that make it a crime to store a loaded firearm where a child can access it.”

Doar said he feels the bill unfairly treats “a farmer in northern Minnesota who has no kids in the home and has a shotgun in his front closet to protect his livestock the same as a day care operator in Minneapolis.”

“As far as their expectations of storage requirements and that one-size-fits-all approach, it doesn’t work well for the wide array of ways that people store and use their firearms in Minnesota,” he said.

Though Westlin will not author this bill, she said the safe storage legislation is especially important in light of the shooting in Wisconsin on Dec. 16 in which a 15-year-old girl fatally shot two people and injured six others.

“We don’t know all the details yet about what happened in Wisconsin, but it was a young person, certainly, that was able to access a firearm, and so this is a conversation that we have to have about making sure that young people shouldn’t have access to firearms,” Westlin said.

Westlin noted that in Minnesota, where a lot of firearms are used for hunting, vehicles are a common place for storage. She said this is one of the most common places for them to be stolen.

Looking ahead

Both Her and Westlin expressed doubt that the bills would pass but said continuous conversations around gun violence prevention are important to them.

Her said the debate for the reporting firearms bill was “hours upon hours” last session.

“These types of bills, the votes fall on party line,” Her said. “And maybe the bill doesn’t pass this year, but to just provide some education so that people are aware of what is being done and why this is really important, I think might be a really big step to take this year.”

Her said the tie in the Minnesota House, which is now looking to be a GOP majority for the moment with a DFL seat vacant, alongside a DFL majority in the Senate, “will pose a challenge.”

“This happens on both sides of the aisle, but even when something could be agreed, there are strong party views,” Her said. “And so even if I have Republican colleagues who may very much be on board with a concept … it would be really hard for them to break away from their party’s position on it. So, I know that the road in front of us is going to be difficult.”

Westlin echoed Her’s remarks, saying she anticipates the reporting firearms bill isn’t likely to pass off the Senate floor.

“This year will likely be a heavy lift again,” Westlin said. “I don’t know that it’s likely to certainly pass off the floor, but I do think it an important conversation for us to have, and my focus really always has been to have a conversation and to engage as many voices as possible, including the gun owners caucus.”

Doar said the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus is approaching the session with less alarm than when the DFL had majorities.

“It’s not quite the level of concern that we had at last session with the Democrats regaining control and kind of putting typically anti-gun politicians in key committee positions, so there is a little bit of relief there, but they’re going to adjust their strategies and tactics to try to pass things on their agenda, and we’ll have to be on the lookout for that,” he said.

Doar said his caucus is more focused on mental health resources, citing that nearly 80% of deaths from firearms in Minnesota are suicides, as reported by the Minnesota Department of Health. He also said his caucus will look at Minnesota’s serial number laws this session.

“There’s some strong ambiguity in the law about what types of firearms actually require serial numbers,” he said. “We’d like to see that at least clarified so … gun owners know the expectations of them.”

Doar also said they will look at loosening regulations around hunting rifles.

Westlin said this session she thinks the bills from herself and DFL colleagues aren’t on a “path to passage,” but she sees them as worthwhile to have conversations that would eventually get them “over the finish line.”

“Bipartisanship is a two-way street,” she said. “And again, this is a serious problem. And I think acknowledging that there is a problem with gun violence in our state, in our country, is kind of a threshold, a place that we have to start from, and sometimes I don’t feel that there’s much of an acknowledgment of that. We can’t address something and alleviate the problem unless we identify that there is a problem.”

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Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sues Glock over easy automatic weapon conversions

Mary Murphy — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 22:59:45 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — Attorney General Keith Ellison announced Thursday, Dec. 12, that he will sue gunmaker Glock for a handgun model that allows consumers to convert their weapon from a semi-automatic gun to a fully automatic gun.

At a Thursday morning press briefing, Ellison explained that up to 65% of handguns across the country are an exact model by Glock that can be turned into automatic weapons with a coin-sized device known as a “Glock switch.”

“Glock’s actions or inactions violate Minnesota law and put kids, communities and law enforcement in danger, and this has to stop,” he said. “We are not asking Glock to stop selling handguns. We are asking Glock to change the design of its semi-automatic handguns available to the public so that they cannot be easily converted into illegal machine guns.”

In 2022, Minneapolis recorded 3,024 shots fired by fully automatic firearms compared to 154 shots in 2020. Additionally, from 2019 to 2022, gunshot victims in Minneapolis rose 101%, according to statistics provided by the Attorney General’s Office.

The switches that convert the guns are not sold by companies like Glock, but Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said the manufacturing of switches is as easy as using a 3D printer or buying one off the internet. He said Minneapolis streets are not strangers to the switch industry.

“We arrested an individual in north Minneapolis about two years ago who was selling switches,” O’Hara said. “Many nights, we were getting automatic gunfire detected at a specific location in far north Minneapolis, near a park.”

Through an investigation of that gunfire, police were able to “identify an individual who was essentially selling these switches in the community and driving a lot of the problem,” he said. “But that’s just one individual, and we’ve taken a lot of these guns off the street.”

It has been illegal in Minnesota since the 1930s for the public to own fully automatic machine guns, and Ellison claims Glock has known since at least 1988 that its semi-automatic handguns can be easily converted into fully automatic machine guns.

Greg Johnson, father of Charlie Johnson, who was fatally shot on May 22, 2021, outside a Minneapolis nightclub, shared his son’s story at the Thursday press conference.

“I have a horrible job today, and I’m proud to do it,” Greg Johnson said. “My job is to take this abstract notion of a machine pistol and bring it to life. We have the honor of being the parents who received that call in the middle of the night, a call that nobody wants, that our son, who was getting ready for college graduation the next day, had been killed.”

Charlie Johnson was 21 years old and set to graduate from the University of St. Thomas. The person who was convicted of killing him was sentenced to more than 69 years in prison in December 2022.

“I ask you to remember our son, Charlie, and all the victims like him,” Greg Johnson said. “They’re real people. Their loss leaves holes all over the planet, and the world will never know what this bright, young spirit could have accomplished. Get rid of these things.”

O’Hara said the lawsuit will protect people like Charlie Johnson, as well as officers in the line of duty.

O’Hara told the story of Officer Jacob Spies, who was following a group of suspected robbers. Spies thought he was undetected, but he was not.

“All of a sudden, he was very violently and very suddenly ambushed, and one of the gunmen that fired upon him had a gun that was equipped with a switch,” O’Hara said. “I went to this scene, and I saw the vehicle that Officer Spies was driving, and it was just riddled with holes. I saw one round that went through the headrest directly behind on the driver’s side, where he was sitting. And I was talking to Officer Spies in the hospital, and I’ll never forget how he described the sound of a dozen rounds being fired: ‘They’re all fired before you can even react.’ ”

O’Hara said that while Spies ended up being OK, this is the reality for his officers. He said the prevalence of automatic handguns is “exploding,” and not just in Minnesota.

The lawsuit is the first of its kind in Minnesota. New Jersey planned to file a similar lawsuit Thursday.

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Off Grid Armory brings new line of suppressors to the market

TJ Rhodes — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 22:00:00 GMT

SHEVLIN – A distinctive gun shop 17 miles south of Shevlin, Off Grid Armory recently blew the gun suppressor market wide open.

On Oct. 17, Off Grid Armory launched its line of suppressors nationwide in partnership with South Dakota’s Silencer Central, an online suppressor marketplace that sells and ships suppressors to all 42 states where they are legal.

Built with compatibility in mind, Off Grid’s Scorpius is fit for a 22-gauge rifle and the Trident is fit for a 30-gauge.

“(The Trident) is made to go on a 300 Winchester Magnum all the way down to an AR-15,” Off Grid founder Sam Smith said. “This will go on literally every rifle that you own.”

Before their official release, both were submitted to PEW Science – a suppressor testing agency in Texas. The Scorpius was ranked the second quietest suppressor in the world while the Trident ranked fifth.

“The major companies that are doing this have been in the game for around 35 years and their suppressors are not as nice as ours,” Smith said. “My goal was to make Off Grid suppressors a household name. To partner with the number one suppressor distributor in the country, that's huge. It still doesn't feel like this is real.”

What makes Off Grid’s suppressors special is their design.

According to Smith, its suppressors include a mono-body design compared to many market suppressors that are “antique” in nature due to their segmented bodies which form weak points over time. Smith said he understands why segmented suppressors exist: they are easier to clean. He just believes that the mono-body design is superior as it holds no weak points.

Off Grid’s suppressors are also 3D printed with titanium powder to create an “ultra futuristic” interior that quells the sound of a screaming bullet.

“I can take my imagination and put it inside of a suppressor. That is non-machinable (because) it's too complex,” Smith added. “We just keep pushing the limits. This design is insane.”

Both differences help the Off Grid suppressors last longer as Smith claims, “It'll last you your whole life. It'll last your kids their whole life.”

In the market

Off Grid Armory took several steps to get to this point, and the process did not happen overnight.

“I've been selling suppressors for 10 years and I've always wanted to have our own brand of suppressor because I knew that we could make something better than what was being sold,” Smith said, “but (the process) wasn't quick. I have friends in the 3D printing world, and four years ago, I gave them a suppressor and said, ‘Can we make a suppressor using your expertise in 3D printing?’ Fast forward four years later and we have a patented internal design.”

The 3D printers tasked with creating Off Grid’s suppressors aren’t average, everyday printers. They’re large, $2 million printers capable of utilizing titanium powder. According to Smith, only four companies produce such suppressors as the cost often proves prohibitive.

To ensure Smith had the resources to finalize a design to print and produce, he needed a little help. Thus, he formed partnerships with various organizations including Velontra – a company that works with the Department of Defense – and Silencer Central, allowing Off Grid suppressors to be found on a national scale.

Following the steps to own a suppressor through the National Futures Association is all that stands between someone owning an Off Grid suppressor, but the process can be tricky. Luckily, Silencer Central helps guide eager customers online.

If someone wants to purchase a suppressor in person, the process starts with Off Grid helping customers decide which suppressor is right for them. Potential buyers must then pass a background check provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which includes a photo and submission of fingerprints.

Paperwork is filed and sent to the NFA with the customer paying a $200 transfer tax, awaiting approval. They can not leave with their suppressor right away.

According to Smith, the suppressor market is currently “hot” as approval time has become quicker than ever.

“NFA transfer times are like two days to two weeks. That has never happened. It's always been a year wait for the NFA branch to give you permission to own your suppressor,” Smith said. “Blake Jones (an Off Grid employee) is upstairs right now selling a .22 suppressor. That guy will probably have the green light in two days. He'll come back to Off Grid and take his suppressor home.”

The release of Off Grid’s suppressor line seemingly came at the best time. Not only can Smith demonstrate the line’s potential to the public, but people can buy from it on a national scale and receive it in record time.

Smith’s goal was to turn Off Grid into a household name. The stars have aligned to allow him to do just that.

Why buy a suppressor?

A gun suppressor serves many purposes including reducing recoil, improving accuracy and to avoid scaring unharmed animals during a hunt while firing multiple rounds.

It also enables hunters to use their hearing and simultaneously save it.

“That ringing that you hear in your ears, that’s your hearing dying. That's a frequency you will never hear again in your life,” Smith said. “(A suppressor is) a health and safety product. When I'm an old man, I want to be able to hear my grandkids.

“I won't even shoot a firearm that doesn't have a suppressor on it. It spoils you. You can go out and shoot all day, and it's just amazing.”

The vast functionality and comparative advantages over tenured market suppressors means that the Off Grid suppressors are a tad more expensive. The Scorpius can be purchased online for $549.99 and the Trident can be purchased online for $1,299.99, not counting applicable taxes.

But Smith feels the advantages vastly outweigh the cost especially since Off Grid suppressors are only about $300 more expensive than comparable market suppressors still plagued by the issues an Off Grid suppressor strives to fix including weight, segmentation and quality of decibel reduction.

If customers still aren’t convinced, Smith will take them to the gun range built behind Off Grid Armory and audibly show them the difference between an Off Grid suppressor and others on the market.

Staying ‘off grid’

Located at 27110 206th St., about four miles north of Itasca State Park, Off Grid Armory opened in 2015 by Smith who was previously in the U.S. Navy. His passion for firearms coincided with the conception of Off Grid Armory.

The business began in a garage on family property and Smith wanted to stay on family property once he was ready to expand, even if this meant staying “off grid.”

“A coffee shop, a grocery store, it's all about location,” Smith mentioned. “A gun store, you could put on the back of the moon and people would show up.”

Since its founding, Off Grid has built a respectable following on Facebook where they promote and demonstrate their products. This reach has brought customers from all over the United States to Shevlin.

Off Grid Armory offers numerous in-person and virtual classes to teach gun safety while providing people with the proper qualifications to own and operate a firearm.

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Minnesota Lt. Gov. Flanagan buys hunting license, talks about becoming first-time gun owner

Mary Murphy — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 19:04:14 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan purchased a pheasant hunting license on Monday, Oct. 7, and shared that she became a first-time gun owner last week.

In an audio recording provided by the governor’s office, Flanagan explained after purchasing her license Monday morning that she’s hunted many times before but never with her own gun — and that she needed something lighter.

A representative from the lieutenant governor’s office said Flanagan purchased a 20-gauge Benelli shotgun at Joe’s Sporting Goods in St. Paul on Tuesday, Oct. 1, in preparation for the annual Governor's Pheasant Hunting Season Opener in Sleepy Eye on Oct. 11-12.

After purchasing her hunting license at the Department of Natural Resources office Monday morning, Flanagan took some time to discuss gun safety with those on site.

“As a mom with a kiddo at home and a busy household, I cannot stress enough the importance of storing guns safely,” she said.

Flanagan said she can’t wait to take her daughter, Siobhan, hunting one day, but said that she wants “to demonstrate that these are powerful weapons that should be treated as such.” She said her family discussed what bringing the firearm home and safe storage would look like prior to purchasing it.

Bob Jacobson, commissioner of Public Safety, spoke after Flanagan, making some remarks on proper gun storage.

“We are all very concerned and interested in safe storage of firearms,” he said. “We know that's important. There have been far too many tragedies that have occurred in the state of Minnesota and across our country with a lack of safe storage.”

Jacobson advised locking firearms in a safe when not in use and keeping ammunition stored separately. He said the Department of Public Safety has given out over 80,000 free gun locks, and said the Department of Natural Resources gives them out as well.

“I'm proud to live in a state where we can have our Second Amendment rights and be gun owners, but also enact common sense gun laws that offer resources to help gun owners store their guns safely,” Flanagan said.

Only one gun safety bill passed last session: a ban on binary triggers and increased straw purchase penalties.

The safe storage and reporting of lost or stolen firearms bills both died. Flanagan said she predicts she will bring back the safe storage bill this session, “in partnership with the Legislature.”

Flanagan also spoke about previous season openers with Gov. Tim Walz, who is currently campaigning as the Democratic nominee for vice president.

“I have to say that normally, I have a little FOMO [fear of missing out] when I am watching the governor and the vice president on the campaign trail having a blast, throwing snacks to each other across the aisle,” she said, in reference to a video that went viral of Vice President Kamala Harris and Walz picking out snacks in a gas station. “But today, I think the governor probably wishes that he was here with all of us getting ready for one of his favorite events, which is the pheasant opener and pheasant hunting season.”

Flanagan, upon being asked whether Walz would be making an appearance at the opener in Sleepy Eye, said she was unable to confirm whether he’d be attending.

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Minnesota man, suspect in Wahpeton murder, pleads guilty to federal gun charge

Tasha Carvell — Thu, 19 Sep 2024 19:05:01 GMT

FARGO — The Breckenridge, Minnesota, man still considered to be the only person of interest in the shooting death of a Hankinson man outside the ice arena in Wahpeton in 2023 appeared Thursday, Sept. 19 in court in Fargo to plead guilty to federal gun charges.

Anthony Kruger, 34, was indicted by a federal grand jury last May on one count of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

Kruger was precluded from possessing a gun due to convictions in four previous felony cases, including forgery, escape and drug charges in Richland County between 2010 and 2012, and an additional drug crime in Becker County, Minnesota, in 2020.

Government prosecutors reached a plea deal with Kruger last month and he formally pleaded guilty Thursday morning, Sept. 19.

Kruger faces up to 15 years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000, though prosecutors indicated in the plea agreement that the government would seek the low end of the sentencing guidelines in the case, which is between three and eight years. Chief Judge Peter Welte ordered a pre-sentence investigative report.

The investigation into the Jan. 16, 2023, shooting death of 40-year-old Jeremiah Medenwald in a car outside Wahpeton's Stern Sports Arena while youth hockey games were being played is ongoing.

Wahpeton Police Chief Matthew Anderson told The Forum Thursday that investigators are currently in the process of reviewing the entire file and that Kruger is "still considered a person of interest — the only person of interest — in the case."

A spokesperson for the Richland County State's Attorney said their office had not received any new information in the case "in a long time."

Investigators accused Kruger of firing more than a dozen shots at a car Medenwald was behind the wheel of after the two men were together at Dakota Magic Casino. Medenwald died after being shot in the back.

Kruger was initially charged with Medenwald's murder on Jan. 23, 2023, but State's Attorney Megan Kummer moved to dismiss the charges just two weeks later. A gun charge brought by the state in relation to the case was also dismissed once Kruger was federally indicted.

Kruger is set to be sentenced in the federal gun case Jan. 23, 2025.

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Federal appeals court strikes down Minnesota age restriction on conceal carry

Brian Todd — Tue, 16 Jul 2024 21:52:14 GMT

ST. LOUIS — A unanimous ruling by the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, gave a victory to Minnesota gun owners and Second Amendment advocates.

In the case Worth v. Jacobson, the three-judge panel ruled that Minnesota’s ban on concealed carry by young adults is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.

The ruling overturned Minnesota's ban on permits to carry for anyone under the age of 21, which has been on the books since 2003. Minnesota Statute 624.714 states a permit can be denied to persons under the age of 21. Furthermore, anyone carrying a pistol in public who does not have a permit to carry "is guilty of a gross misdemeanor. A person who is convicted a second or subsequent time is guilty of a felony."

The lawsuit against Minnesota's ban for permits to carry for adults under 21 was brought by the Second Amendment Foundation, the Firearms Policy Coalition, Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and four citizens: Austin Dye, Alex Anderson, Joe Knudsen and Kristin Worth, for whom the case is named.

The appeals court affirmed an earlier district court ruling that stated, the plain text of the Second Amendment covered the plaintiffs’ conduct because 18- to 20-year-olds are among “the people” and that the Second Amendment presumptively guarantees plaintiffs “the right” to bear handguns in public for self-defense, the ruling on Tuesday stated.

Judge William Duane Benton, the chief justice on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, said, “Importantly, the Second Amendment’s plain text does not have an age limit. ... Ordinary, law-abiding 18- to 20-year-old Minnesotans are unambiguously members of the people. Because the plain text of the Second Amendment covers the plaintiffs and their conduct, it is presumptively constitutionally protected."

He added, “Minnesota has not met its burden to proffer sufficient evidence. ... The Carry Ban … violates the Second Amendment as applied to Minnesota through the Fourteenth Amendment, and, thus, is unconstitutional.”

“This is a resounding victory for 18- to 20-year-old adults who wish to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms, ” Bryan Strawser, chairman of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, said in a press release on the organization's website.

In that same press release, Rob Doar, senior vice president & political director for the organization said, "Politicians should carefully consider the legal ramifications of infringing on Second Amendment rights. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and its allies will relentlessly pursue legal action against any unconstitutional measures introduced in Minnesota.”

Doar added that while there are other states that have similar bans, this decision won't impact those state bans directly because Minnesota is the only state in the 8th Circuit that has such a ban. However, he added that Tuesday's ruling could serve as both a springboard for cases in other areas of the country and could help build cases against further restrictions on permits to carry in Minnesota such as the state's $100 permit fee.

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US Supreme Court rejects federal ban on gun 'bump stocks'

Andrew Chung / Reuters — Fri, 14 Jun 2024 15:12:59 GMT

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday declared unlawful a federal ban on "bump stock" devices that enable semiautomatic weapons to fire rapidly like machine guns, rejecting yet another firearms restriction - this time one enacted under Republican former President Donald Trump.

The justices, in a 6-3 ruling authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, upheld a lower court's decision siding with Michael Cargill, a gun shop owner and gun rights advocate from Austin, Texas, who challenged the ban by claiming that a U.S. agency improperly interpreted a federal law banning machine guns as extending to bump stocks. The conservative justices were in the majority, with the liberal justices dissenting.

The rule was imposed in 2019 by Trump's administration after the devices were used during a 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a Las Vegas country music festival. The policy was defended in court by Democratic President Joe Biden's administration.

"This case asks whether a bump stock - an accessory for a semiautomatic rifle that allows the shooter to rapidly reengage the trigger (and therefore achieve a high rate of fire) - converts the rifle into a 'machinegun.' We hold that it does not and therefore affirm" the lower court's ruling, Thomas wrote.

Federal officials have said the rule was needed to protect public safety in the United States, a nation facing persistent firearms violence.

Bump stocks use a semiautomatic's recoil to allow it to slide back and forth while "bumping" the shooter's trigger finger, resulting in rapid fire.

Thomas wrote: "We conclude that semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a 'machinegun' because it does not fire more than one shot 'by a single function of the trigger.'"

In a dissent, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, "Today, the court puts bump stocks back in civilian hands. To do so, it casts aside Congress's definition of 'machinegun' and seizes upon one that is inconsistent with the ordinary meaning of the statutory text and unsupported by context or purpose."

"When I see a bird that walks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck. A bump-stock-equipped semiautomatic rifle fires 'automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.' Because I, like Congress, call that a machinegun, I respectfully dissent," Sotomayor said.

Federal law prohibits the sale or possession of machine guns, punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The bump stocks case centered on how the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a U.S. Justice Department agency, interpreted the National Firearms Act, which defined machine guns as weapons that can "automatically" fire more than one shot "by a single function of the trigger."

After a gunman used weapons outfitted with bump stocks in the Las Vegas shooting spree that killed 58 people and wounded hundreds more, Trump's administration took action to prohibit the devices. In a reversal of the agency's previous stance, the ATF decided that bump stocks were covered by the National Firearms Act.

The Supreme Court, with its 6-3 conservative minority, has taken an expansive view of gun rights, striking down gun restrictions in major cases in 2008, 2010 and in 2022. In that 2022 decision, struck down New York state's limits on carrying concealed handguns outside the home and set a tough new standard for determining the legality of gun regulations. Unlike those three cases, this challenge was not centered on the U.S. Constitution's Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a concurring opinion on Friday: "The horrible shooting spree in Las Vegas in 2017 did not change the statutory text or its meaning. That event demonstrated that a semiautomatic rifle with a bump stock can have the same lethal effect as a machinegun, and it thus strengthened the case for amending (existing law). But an event that highlights the need to amend a law does not itself change the law's meaning," Alito said.

"Now that the situation is clear, Congress can act," Alito added.

John Feinblatt, president of the gun control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety, criticized the ruling and called on Congress to pass legislation banning bump stocks.

"Guns outfitted with bump stocks fire like machine guns, they kill like machine guns, and they should be banned like machine guns - but the Supreme Court just decided to put these deadly devices back on the market," Feinblatt said.

Cargill sued to challenge the bump stocks rule, which required him to surrender his two bump stocks.

"Those weapons do exactly what Congress meant to prohibit when it enacted the prohibition on machine guns," Justice Department lawyer Brian Fletcher told the Supreme Court during arguments in the case in February in which the justices focused on technical aspects of bump stocks.

Fletcher told the justices that "a single motion both initiates and maintains a multi-shot sequence."

In January 2023, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Cargill in a divided opinion.

The United States is a country deeply divided over how to address gun violence that Biden has called a "national embarrassment." Biden and many Democrats favor tougher gun restrictions, while Republicans often oppose them. In this case, however, it was a Republican administration that implemented the regulation.

The Supreme Court had turned away some previous challenges to the bump stocks rule.

The justices also are expected to rule by the end of June in another gun rights case. They heard arguments in November over the legality of a federal law that makes it a crime for people under domestic violence restraining orders to have guns.

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Minnesota bans binary triggers after deadly police shootings

Ingrid Harbo — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 23:14:49 GMT

MOORHEAD — Binary triggers, used in the killing of a Fargo police officer last year and three Burnsville responders in February, will be banned in Minnesota by a new law signed by Gov. Tim Walz on Monday, June 3.

House File 2609 adds binary triggers to the definition of “trigger activators,” which are already banned in Minnesota. The device allows a firearm to fire one round when a trigger is pulled and a second round on the release of the trigger.

The law also increases penalties for straw purchases of firearms, which is when a person buys a firearm for someone who is not legally allowed to have one.

The rifle used in the July 14, 2023, shooting that killed Fargo Police Officer Jake Wallin and injured two other officers and a bystander was equipped with a binary trigger. The device allowed 37-year-old Mohamad Barakat, of Fargo, to rapidly shoot at law enforcement. Two other officers and a bystander were seriously injured in the shooting.

Binary triggers are legal in North Dakota, with the state Legislature carving out an exception for the device in a 2019 law. House Bill 1308 added language into law that stated a “machine gun, submachine gun or fully automatic rifle,” which is banned under North Dakota law, “does not include a binary trigger that fires one round upon the pull of the trigger and one round upon release of the trigger.”

The new Minnesota law comes after a binary trigger was used in a Burnsville, Minnesota, shooting in February in which two police officers and a firefighter-paramedic were killed. A Burnsville woman has been indicted for straw purchasing five guns on behalf of the shooter, who used two firearms in the Feb. 18 shooting.

Sen. Heather Gustafson, D-Vadnais Heights, carried the bill. She told reporters the provision on trigger activators stemmed from an ask from the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

While binary triggers remain legal in North Dakota, on March 21, North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley told The Forum he heard several lawmakers plan to propose legislation to ban binary triggers in the state, and he expects to support that legislation. He said he sees no value in having guns equipped with a binary trigger.

“It doesn’t assist in accuracy in any meaningful way,” Wrigley said. “What it does, as it did in this incident, is it allows the perpetrator to create a spray of bullets."

The part of the law around straw purchases increases penalties for straw purchasing from a gross misdemeanor to a felony charge. People who buy firearms for others who are not legally allowed to possess that firearm could be sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of more than $10,000.

In October 2022, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a lawsuit against Fleet Farm alleging it negligently sold firearms to straw purchasers. On June 3, Ellison added a claim to the lawsuit against Fleet Farm, alleging the retailer violated the Minnesota Gun Control Act.

In a June 3 press release, Gustafson said the new law was a step toward keeping communities, law enforcement and first responders safe.

“Keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them is a goal that all Minnesotans can agree upon,” she said. “While there is more work to do, today is progress for our communities, for victims and their families, and for those who protect and serve our State.”

The section of the law banning binary triggers goes into effect Jan. 1, 2025. Increased penalties for straw purchasing go into effect on Aug. 1 and will apply to crimes committed on or after that date.

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What Minnesota lawmakers got done, didn’t get done — and how they’ll campaign on it

Alex Derosier / St. Paul Pioneer Press — Tue, 28 May 2024 12:42:00 GMT

ST. PAUL — Minnesota’s legislative session came to a chaotic close this year as Democratic-Farmer-Labor lawmakers pushed through a massive bill package in the final hour, prompting loud GOP protests.

But now that the noise has subsided and lawmakers have left the Capitol, what will this year’s work mean for the state and the election in November?

Legislative leaders of both parties and longtime observers of Minnesota politics agree: the last-minute squabbling late last Sunday night, May 19, won’t have a lot of bearing on what voters think this fall — even if it was a particularly bitter end to the session.

Here’s what lawmakers got done, what they didn’t get done and how DFLers and Republicans plan to campaign.

What passed this year?

One bill that likely will have the greatest immediate impact on most Minnesotans came together in the final weekend of the session — a minimum wage for ride-hailing drivers that ended threats by Uber and Lyft to end service in the metro and even the entire state.

Resolving that issue was a top priority for DFLers because it could have been a potent issue campaign issue for Republicans, said Steven Schier, a professor emeritus of political science at Carleton College and longtime observer of Minnesota politics.

“That would have been a total election disaster for the Democrats, and they knew it,” he said. “It is true that the cost of rides is going to go up, but whether citizens will point the finger at Democrats about that is hard to say.”

House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, pointed to the ride-hailing wage and others as some of the DFL’s achievements this session:

Increasing to a felony the penalty for “straw purchasing,” or buying guns for ineligible people. Allowing recipients of a new child tax credit to get those payments throughout the year. Banning surprise “junk fees” added to purchases like event tickets, hotel stays and food at restaurants. Tightening rules on who employers can classify as an independent contractor.

There were also bills with bipartisan backing that made it to the desk of DFL Gov. Tim Walz.

One clarified the types of force police are allowed to use in schools — something Republicans pressured the DFL to act on after many agencies pulled officers from school districts across the state last year in response to a bill passed last session. The sides ultimately found a compromise in February.

GOP lawmakers initially backed the straw purchase bill but withdrew support after Democrats added language banning binary triggers — a modification that allows semiautomatic rifles to fire more rapidly. That ban ended up making it through despite GOP opposition.

Some other bipartisan bills included:

A fix to a $352 million income tax error from last year. Restoration of religious exemptions to the Minnesota Human Rights Act. Changes to address racial disparities in the child-protection system. What didn’t pass?

Lawmakers failed to pass a roughly $900 million public infrastructure bonding bill, meaning many state and local projects like bridges, university building renovations and prison upgrades will remain on hold.

It failed to garner 60% majorities to pass in the House and Senate as Republicans tied their support to other demands DFLers weren’t willing to meet — like dropping an abortion amendment and a gun-control measure.

Legal sports betting, physician-assisted suicide and a push to enshrine in the state Constitution the right to an abortion didn’t make it through this year, either.

Late this session, the House passed a version of the Equal Rights Amendment that also would create a path for abortion rights and protections for LGBTQ+ people in the Constitution. It would have to pass both the House and Senate to get on the 2026 ballot when voters would have the final say.

“They’re going to take some time and some contemplation,” Murphy said of bills like the ERA and sports betting.

Two gun-control measures that were a priority for the DFL — a requirement to lock up guns and another requiring the reporting of stolen or lost guns in a timely manner — failed after Sen. Grant Hauschild, DFL-Hermantown, said he wouldn’t support them. The DFL has a one-seat majority in the Senate.

Another measure that’ll have to wait till next year is a public buy-in for MinnesotaCare, the state’s health insurance program.

This year’s legislating lacked the frenetic energy of last year’s session, and in a way that’s by design. A $72 billion two-year budget already was in place, and DFL majorities in the Senate and House said their main order of business was fine-tuning the details.

David Schultz, a political science professor at Hamline University, doubted this year’s session would have a huge effect on the election.

“It certainly didn’t do anything that most of the public is going to say directly impacted them in terms of their pocketbook or made life easier for them — at least short term,” he said.

2024 election

Now that the session is over, state politicians are shifting their focus to November. Much of the conversation will center around what happened last year, when the DFL created an array of new social programs

All 134 seats in the House of Representatives are up for election in what could turn out to be a referendum on two years of complete DFL control of state government.

Hortman said the House DFL plans to campaign on its record of creating new social programs like paid leave, child tax credits, free college tuition for low-income Minnesotans, universal school meals and strengthening protections for abortion rights.

“What Democrats will be running on is the most productive biennium in 50 years,” she said. “If you look at the two years together, a remarkable quantity of work got done for the people of Minnesota.”

Hortman said if her party keeps the House, a big priority next year will be working on affordable health care and addressing funding gaps left by the expiration of federal pandemic aid.

Meanwhile, Republicans already have been railing against the DFL’s nearly 40% expansion of government spending, and are asking how the state went through a nearly $18 billion budget surplus without giving more back in direct payments and tax relief.

If Republicans prevail in the race for control of the House, Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, said her caucus will look into controlling government spending and identifying sources of waste.

“It’s very clear that Minnesota has a spending problem,” she said. “We don’t have a revenue problem.”

DFLers control 70 seats in the House, so Republicans will need to net four seats in November to take the majority. They’ll likely focus their efforts in competitive suburban districts and historically Democratic strongholds on Minnesota’s Iron Range that have shifted toward the GOP.

Whether the DFL state government trifecta holds could come down to a handful of races.

“It’s really a toss-up, because the margins are so low,” said Schier. “A few hundred votes across those areas will probably determine who runs the state House next time.”

The 67 Senate seats won’t be up for election until 2026, but state Sen. Kelly Morrison, DFL-Deephaven, is running for an open seat in the 3rd Congressional District, meaning her west metro suburban Senate district will be up for a special election.

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