A group of civil rights activists assembled outside the Minnesota State Capitol on Monday in support of the right to keep and bear arms, reports Minnesota Public Radio News. This marked the first time that two gun advocacy groups — Minnesota Gun Owners Political Action Committee and the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance — jointly organized an official lobbying day. They were joined by Minnesota House Speaker Kurt Daudt, who “told the rally that he will stand with gunowners to protect their rights,” MPR reports . . .

“I’m a sportsman myself, and I have a permit to carry a handgun,” the Speaker was reported as saying.

The assembled people had several items on their plate.

Andrew Rothman, president of the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance, said they want Minnesota to join 46 other states that have the right to keep and bear arms spelled out in the state constitution. He said they also want a law that would prevent police from confiscating firearms during times of emergency.

Rothman told the crowd he was very disappointed to hear that state Sen. Kathy Sheran, DFL-Mankato, was proposing to ban guns in polling places on Election Day.

“We have 185,000 permit holders in the state, and have we ever had an incident at a polling place?,” Rothman asked. “No, but someone saw a gun and it made them frightened, so let’s pass a law. I’m tired of that.”

For her part, Senator Sheran has not actually filed a bill yet, and was noncommittal in the report:

‘I’m trying to figure out why it isn’t a reasonable request to keep the polling place safe,” Sheran said. “I’m listening to all these different ways of thinking about how to improve the feeling of safety and security for these election judges. That’s as far as I’ve gone with it.”

I certainly wish our friends in Minnesota well. It is good to see how much progress has been made in the state so quickly; the state has only had a shall-issue concealed carry law since 2005, and ten years later, even a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Laborer Party can’t even voice full support for the idea of a bill to roll back a small portion of the gains the state has enjoyed in expanding the civil right to keep and bear arms for its residents. Even in an interview for public radio, no less.

I’d also like to gently suggest that the manner in which this rally was conducted sounds like a better example of how to have to win friends and influence people amongst the denizens of legislative bodies (vice simply making a splash in the news) than some other recent examples.

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33 COMMENTS

    • She’s not claiming it will. Look again:

      improve the feeling of safety

      Feeling safe matters more than being safe.

      • Ooops! I’m sorry! I forgot it is all about feeling safe, not about making yourself safe. I should have learned that from this mornings full retard hoplophobe article.

        • Out amongst strangers without my gun, I rarely feel “safe”. The law she wants passed, once she figures it out, would force everyone who even wants mere admission to the voting site to display a loaded firearm to the armed judges. No gun, no vote, everybody present will feel safe because they are armed, and everybody present will BE safe, because they are ALL armed. Only problem, of course, is that during the time all armed citizens are at the polls, local criminals will have a field day robbing those who stay home unarmed.

  3. I’m boycotting Minnesota because they don’t recognize my Iowa permit to carry. Iowa recognizes Minnesota permits but Minnesota won’t return the favor. Bastards. Maybe they should protest that. Fix that and I might go shopping at the Mall of America. Ride the roller coaster at Camp Snoopy with my gat.

      • Well I guess I’ll have to go Valley Fair then. It still exists? Over in Shakopee. I’ve got a new retention holster I need to test out.

    • Fixing reciprocity was one of the goals we were discussing last November, not sure how we are doing.

      The big push for this year is suppressors, constitutional carry, improving the current carry law, namely removing the notification requirement for certain government buildings, banning gun confiscation during emergencies, and a few others.

  4. “I’m a free man and I have the permits to prove it.”

    God, every time one of these lickspittles opens their mouth they make me wonder about their intelligence. If a politician thinks that they have the authority to infringe on your rights, it is your duty to prove that they lack both the authority and the means.

  5. “I’m listening to all these different ways of thinking about how to improve the feeling of safety and security for these election judges”

    Feelings, that’s right. It’s all about the feelings. Good that they have started admitting it recently.

  7. I dunno. This is a state who elected Al “Stewart Smally” Franken senator and Jesse the Body Ventura governor. That’s pretty rabidly FU’ed. I would advise carry your legal concealed weapon anyway. And don’t print…

    • Ventura is a nutcase now, but he was actually a decent governor. He was in favor of a carry law before we got our current one. He also got our current light rail system started, as well as eliminated emissions testing. He held the highest office ever by a green party candidate, and generally said exactly what was on his mind.

  9. As a Minnesota resident, I was glas to hear about this. I’m lucky to live in a mostly gun friendly state, but a state that is increasingly liberal. Unfortunately we cannot own supressors at the moment… But I have heard that soon there will be a push for legalization of supressors.

  10. ‘I’m trying to figure out why it isn’t a reasonable request to keep the polling place safe,” Sheran said. “I’m listening to all these different ways of thinking about how to improve the feeling of safety and security for these election judges. That’s as far as I’ve gone with it.”

    She already draws the conclusion that banning guns keeps the polling place safe and then does the ol’ switcharoo… “what’s unreasonable about that.”

    Notice that it is to improve the “feeling of safety and security” and not actually about improving real safety and security. ‘Muh feels! ‘Muh emotions! FFS

  11. At the end of your writing it is clear that you have an axe to grind, Johannes Paulsen. The responsibility is on you to prove that what you claim changed votes, assuming votes actually changed.

    You seem to be concerned about alienating people. Well, how many gun people do you think that you are alienating by beating that same drum? Are you sure that YOU aren’t doing your part to create division amongst those who carry firearms?

  12. So the War on Wimmen Dems and trendy SJWs are banding together with the faux Mommies and professional gun grabbers, claiming their triggering trumps the facts, and justifies taking god given rights.

    More female solipsism and victim-claiming that un-does the good that was done by the early feminist movement, in the last dying gasp of post-modern, tranzi-nazi, cultural marxism, revealing the sordid truth behind every fascist movement- a simple play for power, no matter what the cost. Ends justifies the means.

    Go ahead, double down, push thru the resistance, Progtards. Its working so well for you so far.

    You know, those nice Lutherans up there in Minn-e-Soda are nice, and will go pretty far to put up with their kooky neighbors.

    You dont want to invoke the old Viking impulse, when you mess with their family. Then the square-heads will write you off, for a long, long time.

    Ya sure you betcha.

  13. I didn’t hear about this until it was too late or I would have been there. MN is strong with gun owners who will fight for their rights. There are even a lot of Democrat voters here who are on the same page when it comes to 2A. I want to start pushing hard for suppressor legalization and better state carry reciprocity. (common sense gun laws) I want us to push it hard and overwhelm them.

    • Unfortunately we’ve got four more years of a Dayton veto looming over suppressor ownership if we could even get it past the progressive controlled Senate.

      • Luckily Dayton seems to notice which way the wind is blowing. He has said many pro-gun things in the last year or so. He even spoke out in favor of capitol carry.

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