ST. PAUL – House Democrats this week approved three anti-gun bills which state Rep. Ben Davis, R-Mission Township, said will do more to make criminals out of law-abiding citizens than crack down on violent criminals.
The three bills include new laws on storage, requirements for reporting stolen firearms, and a new “trigger activator” definition that may render some commonly used guns illegal. These latest proposals follow last year’s changes Democrats enacted regarding universal background checks and red flag confiscation orders.
Davis said the bill regarding reporting stolen firearms wrongly criminalizes a victim of a crime if they do not report a firearm theft within a government-prescribed period of time.
“It’s no secret Democrats in Minnesota want to flat-out ban guns,” Davis said. “They are just nickeling and diming their way to that end, crippling our Second Amendment rights one blow at a time by making it impractical and legally hazardous for people to own guns. Last year, Democrats enacted universal background checks and red flag confiscation orders. Now, they are back at it with more bills that will do more to criminalize law-abiding citizens than to crack down on violent criminals.”
He indicated a better approach would be for our state to step up efforts to enforce existing laws, with prosecutors who are willing to fully charge violent criminals and courts that stop turning dangerous people back out on the street with a slap on the wrist.
“We can’t keep burying our heads in the sand and acting like law-abiding citizens or guns themselves are the problem,” Davis said. “New laws on storage or reporting might help Democrats sleep happy, but they won’t do a lick of good deterring cold-blooded killers. These bills are more of the Democrat attack on law-abiding gun owners, pure and simple.”
After passing the House along party lines, the three bills are now in the hands of the Senate, where Democrats have a one-seat majority. Davis said that means a senator who currently faces first-degree felony burglary charges could cast deciding votes on bills undermining people’s ability to defend themselves during a home invasion.
The bills House Democrats approved this week include:
- H.F. 4300: Requires a person to store a firearm that is not in the person’s direct control or within reach in a gun safe, gun room, or unloaded with a locking device. There are criminal penalties for failing to comply with the firearm storage requirements.
- H.F. 601: Requires firearm owners to report the loss or theft of a firearm to the local law enforcement agency within 48 hours of its loss and creates a penalty if a person does not report the loss within that timeframe.
- H.F. 2609: Includes bipartisan language House Republicans propose to increase penalties on straw buyers of firearms, but also features a controversial provision regarding the definition of a “trigger activator” that may impact some commonly used guns and render them illegal.
-30-