ST PAUL, Minn. — Any new attempt to further regulate firearms will always be divisive, and what's happening this year in the Minnesota Legislature is no exception.
House Democrats are moving ahead with a bill to expand background checks on gun sales, drawing praise from gun violence prevention groups and taking heat from gun control opponents.
Private Sales
Most firearms are sold by licensed dealers, who are already required to perform background checks that ensured people barred from owning guns can't buy them.
Rep. Dave Pinto's bill, House File 8, expands those checks to cover private sales and transfers of firearms to individuals who aren't family members. The term transfer is used in law because some people give guns to others.
"We’ve decided as a society that certain people should not have firearms -- violent felons, domestic abusers, for instance," Rep. Pinto told KARE.
"This is simply pointing out that there are people who are not dealers, who are selling guns. And we want to make sure to have the same sort of protection, and make sure when they do that sale the person buying the gun is actually eligible to possess it."
Pinto's bill passed the House Public Safety Committee Wednesday night and heads next to the Ways and Means Committee, before returning to Public Safety.
It would require those who want to buy a gun to obtain a purchase permit, which requires a law enforcement background check. Once that's done the sale could go through, but both the buyer and seller would be required to keep a formal record of the transaction.
Pinto's bill doesn't provide for that information to be collected or stored by any entity, so he discounts fears by opponents that the new law would lead to a database of private buyers and sellers.
"No single change will prevent every gun death, but right now we are experiencing an epidemic at rates that are way higher than any country we want to compare ourselves to," Pinto, who is also a prosecutor in Ramsey County, remarked.
Opponents assert the bill will infringe on the rights of the law-abiding citizens in the name of stopping criminals who don't follow firearms regulations in the first place.
"The bill still doesn’t address the true nature of gun crime," Rep. Jim Nash, a Waconia Republican, told reporters Wednesday.
"A background check is not going to slow someone down who is intent on committing a crime. They’re not going to follow the letter of the law, because they’re already choosing to break the law, so why would any of these bills have any impact on that whatsoever?"
Red Flags
The Public Safety Committee also heard House File 9, authored by Rep. Ruth Richardson of Mendota Heights.
It's known as the "Red Flags" bill because it would set up extreme risk protection orders, allowing judges to order firearms temporarily removed from the homes of gun owners who are at risk of hurting themselves or others.
It's similar to the Red Flags law Florida's Republican legislature passed in the aftermath of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last year.
Pinto said that police or prosecutors would petition a judge for the extreme risk order, setting up a hearing on the evidence.
"They would bring concrete evidence to a court and say we believe this person is a significant danger to themselves or others, and not just we believe – this is the clear evidence of behavior," Pinto said.
He said the process would be much like the one used for domestic violence orders. The bill sets up a process to restore the firearms to their owner after the crisis has passed.
It also creates penalties for anyone who would use the law to go deprive someone of a weapon on false pretenses.
But Republican Marion O'Neill of Maple Lake says she's bothered that the bill is focused on firearms instead of resolving the mental health crisis at hand.
"If someone truly is a danger to themselves or others then they should be removed from all of the things in that home they would hurt themselves with or hurt someone else with," Rep. O'Neill explained.
"It’s more than just the firearms. It could be the knives. It could be the rope."
She's also bothered by one provision of the bill that will allow an emergency order, allowing firearms to be removed before the gun owner gets a chance to speak to the court.
The Public Safety Committee took testimony on the Red Flags bill and began to debate it Wednesday night. But House rules dictated they couldn't vote after midnight, so they'll resume the debate Thursday.
Rougher terrain in Senate
Both pieces of legislation are likely to pass the DFL-controlled Minnesota House, but will face an uphill battle in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka has pledged to stop any new gun control measures. Even his Democratic counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Tom Bakk, is uncomfortable with the background checks bill.
"Where you lose me is when you tell me that I can’t sell my shotgun to my neighbor who has lived near me my entire life, we have lived next door to each other and you tell me he’s got to go down to the county sheriff’s office and get a background check."
At least 25 states have moved to universal background checks.
The US House of Representatives also passed a universal background checks bill Wednesday but it's not likely to gain traction in the Senate or with President Trump.