A ban on certain assault-style weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, tighter background checks and measures to keep guns out of the hands of felons are among the solutions legislators are looking at in the wake of a series of high-profile shootings across the country.
House and Senate DFLers on Thursday proposed bills that would expand background checks to the purchase of all pistols and semiautomatic weapons -- including those sold at gun shows or between private parties. The manufacture and sale of some assault weapons and ammunition clips would be banned, and measures would be taken to prevent guns from being sold or given to felons who cannot legally buy or possess firearms.
Other proposals would make it tougher for felons to get gun rights restored and would more severely punish permit-holders if they carry weapons in prohibited areas.
Rep. Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, the Legislature's leading gun-rights advocate, said he would try to block most of those proposals. Cornish previously said he would push a bill to arm teachers and school workers, but now says he won't. "I want to concentrate all my time and effort into exposing these people that introduce the bills for the gun-grabbers that they really are," Cornish said.
Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul, chairman of the House Public Safety Committee, who will kick off three days of gun hearings on Tuesday, will personally carry the bill on expanded background checks. He introduced the bill Thursday and got a ringing endorsement from two key law-enforcement groups -- police chiefs and frontline officers.
"There are wide gaps in our background law that allow an estimated 40 percent of gun sales to go through without a background check," said Dennis Flaherty, head of the state's Police and Peace Officers Association, as he endorsed Paymar's bill. Dave Pecchia, head of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, said the bill would help prevent "criminals and those with mental health issues from gaining access to a pistol."
Paymar said his bill would not apply to sales of hunting rifles or to transfers of weapons among relatives. For the sales of pistols and semiautomatic weapons, the same checks that now apply to sales by licensed dealers would extend to other transactions.
"This simply says if you're going to purchase a weapon at a gun show or over the Internet or at a private sale, you have to go through the same process of getting a background check," Paymar said.
