ST PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota House voted to pass an omnibus public safety finance bill early Tuesday morning.
The bill now heads to the Senate.
Minnesota lawmakers were expected to be up late Monday night debating universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders.
Those gun control provisions are part of the larger omnibus public safety bill in the House, which lawmakers debated Monday night.
Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan made an unscheduled stop at a rally in the Capitol Rotunda by Protect Minnesota and Moms Demand Action.
"In Minnesota we have a hard time asking people for something. Don’t we? But this issue is way too important," Lt. Gov. Flanagan told the group.
"It is time for you to say, 'Can we count on your support?' Do not leave that meeting or conversation without asking, 'Can we count on your support'?"
Gov. Walz noted that he didn't mind the background check he went through to buy the shotgun he used last weekend on the inaugural wild turkey hunt in Northfield.
"I did that with a firearm that I purchased, with a background check that allowed me to have it, that did not in any way interfere with my Second Amendment or Constitutional rights!" he said.
That bill features many other elements, including funding for more prison guards. But the gun measures, which most Republicans oppose, will dominate the discussion.
Background checks are already done on guns purchased through federally licensed dealers. The universal background checks bill heard in House committees this year would expand those checks to private sales between individuals, whether those happen at a gun show or in any other setting.
The bill would exempt sales and transfers of guns between immediate family members and would carve out exceptions for lending someone a gun during a hunting expedition.
And yet those scenarios, the exemptions carved out in the House bill, are the ones Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka cited Monday in explaining his opposition.
"Universal background checks is really just a small percentage of actual gun sales," Sen. Gazelka said. "If I wanted to give a gun to my son or daughter or I wanted a friend to come deer hunting with me and loaned him a gun."
The Extreme Risk Protection orders, also known as the Red Flags bill, would allow law enforcement to petition the courts to temporarily remove firearms from someone the judge deems to be in an extreme mental health crisis. Republicans take issue with the idea, saying they worry that people will abuse the system to disarm their adversaries. Overall, the GOP was not happy with the measure that passed.
"While most Minnesotans were deep asleep in their beds, last night Minnesota House Democrats voted to infringe on the Constitutional rights of law-abiding Minnesotans through the passage of the Public Safety Omnibus Bill," said Republican Party Chairwoman Jennifer Carnihan. "The choice to tuck two controversial gun control bills in this bill highlights the political maneuvering Democrats were willing to go to in order to get enough votes for passage despite bipartisan opposition. Minnesotans deserve better than political games and middle of the night votes on issues that would impact our Second Amendment rights, and thankfully our Republican legislators agree."
Regardless of how the DFL-controlled House votes on the public safety bill, the gun control elements face very dim prospects in the Republican-controlled Senate. They haven't received committee hearings yet in that chamber.
Gazelka had stated previously that he wouldn't allow Senate committee hearings on the gun measures because it would be a distraction in a year where passing a balanced budget is the top priority.
He later revised that to say he'd allow hearings on the gun control provisions if they first passed the House as free-standing or stand-alone bills. They started as stand-alone bills in committee but haven't yet been taken up on the House floor in that form.
Instead they've been lumped into the all-encompassing House Public Safety Omnibus Bill. And that doesn't meet the conditions Gazelka set.
"They chose not to do that, so I don’t want to waste more time on that. It’s not going to be in our judiciary bills. We have virtually no policy in our judiciary bills. And we’re just not going to do it. The bills are dead."
Eventually a conference committee will be asked to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate public safety bills. But Gazelka warned the Senate will not accept any of the House's language on guns, because they haven't been vetted yet in Senate hearings.