Minnesota passes gun control measures

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The state of Minnesota isn’t the kind of place much of the country thinks about. About the only thing that might save it as “flyover country” is that it’s so far north, most people would never actually fly over it.

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But a lot of good people live there, many of which are very pro-gun.

Unfortunately for those good folks, they’re about to have to deal with gun control whether they wanted it or not.

A public safety bill with two major gun control measures is now heading to Gov. Tim Walz’s desk after being approved by the Minnesota Legislature.

The Minnesota House, which had already passed the gun measures, again voted on and approved the package early Tuesday. The Senate passed the bill last week.

The legislation would expand background checks to private gun transfers, not just purchases in federally licensed firearms dealers, and implement a “red flag” law authorizing extreme risk protection orders. That allows a family member or law enforcement to petition a court to suspend someone’s access to guns if deemed a harm to themselves or others.

“I was so pleased to see that vote in the Minnesota Senate, that was really the historic moment because we have had the Minnesota House since 2019. We have passed these measures a few times. They are common sense gun control measures,” Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman said.

Except that it’s not common sense at all.

Common sense tells you that criminals aren’t exactly buying guns from people who will comply with the new law. We know from the data that most buy them on the black market or steal them for themselves. They don’t buy them from their neighbor who is oblivious to their felony status.

So no, there’s nothing common sense about this.

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Nor is there anything common sense about a red flag law. Yes, they take the gun from someone, but they leave a supposedly dangerous person walking around free, able to find other ways to hurt people. And don’t tell me you can’t kill a bunch of folks without a gun, because we all know better.

In fact, you could call that common sense.

Minnesota passed gun control. There’s nothing we can do about that now. Gov. Tim Walz has already promised to sign the bill, so that’s likely a done deal as well.

Now, though, both measures will likely be challenged in court, where I don’t like their chances overall. At least with the universal background check measure, if not the red flag law. The Bruen decision has upset a lot of apple carts on gun control, as we’ve been told in numerous stories told by the media.

This will likely be yet another example.

So Minnesota passed it and it’s likely these measures will go into effect, but don’t expect them to last necessarily.

Yet in the meantime, they’ll cause plenty of issues for law-abiding citizens who aren’t trying to do anything wrong while the criminals ignore them as per usual. It’s just common sense to see that being the case.

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