The animosity was unmistakable between the gun-rights and gun-control advocates who came to St. Paul on Tuesday to weigh in on whether citizens with permits to carry firearms should be allowed to continue bringing them into the State Capitol.
Even after Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon, who chaired the advisory panel discussion on Capitol security, told participants to keep the discussion constructive, it didn't take long for those testifying to launch character attacks.
Within just a few minutes, a man in favor of a Capitol gun ban had called state Rep. Tony Cornish, who sat nearby with the gun-rights crowd, a "bully." An opponent of a ban soon returned the disfavor, saying "professional help" was available for those expressing "feelings" of intimidation when they saw people carrying weapons at the Capitol.
The disrespectful exchanges reflected poorly on both sides. More disturbingly, the ill will yielded nothing but shopworn ideological debate over gun control. This prevented a more productive exploration of the common ground the two sides share — genuine concern about the safety of those who visit or work at the Capitol complex — that could have yielded practical, politically feasible measures to heighten security.
Tuesday's hearing should not have been an either-or discussion about guns at the Capitol. Instead, there should have been shared acknowledgment that improving public safety at the seat of Minnesota's state government is a never-ending responsibility as times, issues and motivations and weapons change.
Then, the discussion should have quickly focused on more pragmatic steps that stop short of a politically unrealistic ban but nevertheless would reduce the risk of a tragedy that is all too common in this era: a mass shooting in a public gathering place.
Measures that merit serious consideration include bag checks — like those that many professional sports fans already endure — and the use of metal detectors to check for weapons at certain times or places in the Capitol complex. Logical locations: entrances to the House and Senate public galleries or entrances to hearing rooms when contentious issues are weighed.
These checks wouldn't have to bar firearms carried by properly permitted gun owners to significantly improve security at venues where emotions run high. But such searches would increase the chance that the Capitol's security officers would find someone who is not lawfully carrying a firearm and, therefore, poses a higher safety risk. The need to catch these bad actors is something both gun-control and gun-rights activists can agree on.
