Townhall Media/Beth Baumann

The Minnesota Legislature has a lot of the same dynamics as Congress. Namely, a Democrat-controlled House and a Republican-controlled Senate. This means no one party can ram legislation through, which has been good for Minnesota gun owners.

After all, as Democrats throughout the nation feel emboldened to launch a war against our gun rights, we need all the protection we can get. Particularly in places like Minnesota with large urban centers that may eclipse more rural areas in political clout.

With gun bills stalled, Democrats seem to be growing desperate to get a vote on these bills. Now, they’re going to try to force the vote.

Minnesota’s top Republican at the State Capitol Thursday declared gun safety bills dead for the year. That’s after Democrats used a parliamentary maneuver to force a vote on gun control.

House Democrats made gun safety a top-ten priority this year, but it stalled for lack of support in the Republican Senate. Now, they are trying to force the vote with a high-stakes gamble.

After weeks of protest, House Democrats are wrapping the contentious gun bills into a much larger, key public safety measure to guarantee that it gets a vote.

“Minnesotans have demanded that this legislature take action to prevent gun violence,” said Rep. Melissa Hortman – (D) House Speaker.

The gun measures include stricter criminal background checks. And extreme risk protection orders allowing police to confiscate guns from dangerous people. Both bills would likely fail in the Senate, where Republicans want a single up-or-down vote.

However, I also understand there may be another reason to wrap those bills up in other measures. It seems that Democrats in the state may not have the votes to pass some of these bills on their own. Some of their own may be less than thrilled with the current anti-gun push and wouldn’t likely back some of these measures.

By wrapping them up in other public safety measures, Democrats may make them more appealing to other members of their party.

At least, that’s my understanding from folks more intimately familiar with the Minnesota Legislatures than I am.

Either way, Democrats are bound and determined to force gun control to at least come to a vote. Their belief is that gun control is popular, and that Republicans voting against gun control measures will suddenly find reelection difficult.

What these Democrats don’t get is that for many people, particularly those who don’t live in large cities, gun control is a non-starter. A candidate backing gun control is a non-starter as well. Republicans who vote for gun control measures aren’t safe. Doing that makes them vulnerable, but not to a Democrat in the general election. That won’t matter for those Republicans. It won’t matter because they’ll be out after the primary.

That’s something Democrats all over the country fail to grasp.

It should be interesting to see how enticing these public safety bills turn out to be, though. If they’re good, Republicans might consider backing them despite the anti-gun language.  We’ll have to see.