cuchulainn
Member
Odd use of "but" to start the second para.
http://www.virginiamn.com/placed/index.php?story_id=133784
http://www.virginiamn.com/placed/index.php?story_id=133784
Handgun permit bill
Legislation has bipartisan support
By K.C. HOWARD
Mesabi Daily News
Last Updated: Wednesday, February 26th, 2003 11:03:49 PM
Legislative Correspondent
ST. PAUL — Local business owners have the right to declare: 'no shirt, no shoes, no service.' Don't like pedigrees on the premises? Then post: “No dogs allowed.â€
But a House bill making its way to the floor could require local businesses to place “no gun zone†warnings and provide a safe storage area where consumers could store their firearms.
The signs and storage boxes apply only to those opposed to firepower on their property and are part of a personal protection bill that would give county sheriffs the sole authority to grant conceal-carry permits.
In its fifth year in circulation at the Capitol, the legislation passed the House Judiciary Policy and Finance Committee on Wednesday with bipartisan support.
"This bill doesn't change current law in regards to who can possess and carry a firearm," said Rep. Lynda Boudreau, R-Faribault. "But we have to have some standards."
Boudreau's bill removes occupational hazard or personal safety requirements that critics have said give law enforcement subjective powers to grant or deny permits. It also requires the sheriff to grant or deny an application within 15 days.
Applicants would pay $40 for a four-year permit, $10 of which would return to the state's general fund.
If denied, a citizen could appeal through district court, where a sheriff must supply clear and convincing evidence that the applicant has a mental health problem, or felony record.
Eight citizens testified before the committee and complained the current conceal-carry law allows sheriffs and police chiefs to deny permits unjustifiably.
Theresa Schieffelbein, a corrections officer in a small southwest Minnesota town, said she receives death threats from the felons with which she works.
"They know where I live, what kind of car I drive and who my children are," she said.
After completing a firearm-training course, she said she was shocked when her county sheriff said she did not have an apparent need to conceal and carry a weapon.
"Do I have to wait until I get stabbed?" she said to representatives. "That sheriff made sure that I was absolutely defenseless."
She testified that inmates told her they could get her a firearm quickly and that she should not bother with permits.
Not wanting to leave her husband without a wife and children without a mother, Schieffelbein said in a shaky voice that she wouldn't tell legislators how she planned to assure her personal safety.
"The law abiding citizens will follow the rules but the criminals won't," she said. "You're system is broken."
According to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Minnesota sheriffs and police chiefs denied permits to 6 percent of the 13,709 conceal-carry applicants in 2002. Of those denied a permit, 62 percent did not show an occupational- or personal-safety need.
"If they can articulate a hazard or a need then I'll give them a permit," said Koochiching County Sheriff Duane Nelson. "Most people don't even need them especially here up north where we don't have a lot of crime."
Nelson said he didn't like the bill's intent to take away discretion from local sheriffs and police chiefs, who know their constituents.
While some sheriffs have testified they could not process the boatloads of permits they receive under the 15-day deadline and the $40 fee, Nelson said he would have little trouble processing Koochiching County residents for free.
Out of the 37 residents who applied for a conceal-carry permit in 2002, he only denied three.
But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized the legislation as another expensive state mandate on counties and some said they thought it could endanger citizens needlessly.
"That's just a bunch of malarkey," said Sen. Tom Saxhaug, DFL-Grand Rapids, referring to the sign and storage area that businesses would have to provide to accommodate conceal-carry permit holders. "I don't think they should be in schools. I don't think you should be able to carry a gun into a hockey arena.
"If you bring it in against their (business owners’) wishes, there ought to be a remedy," he said.
While Saxhaug supports conceal-carry legislation, he said he wants more stringent guidelines on where guns can go.
Although Boudreau's bill does not allow guns on school property, some proponents of the legislation argued she should allow firearms on school grounds.
"Schools will not be safer just because a permit holder is no longer allowed to carry a gun into a school," said Tim Grant, a Richfield resident who testified at the committee. "Should a school become a target of terrorists or even a psychotic student, then the gun control advocates, Minnesota's education establishment and because of this statutory advertisement you (legislators) are going to have to take a share of responsibility in this."
Rep. David Dill, DFL-Orr, grew up in Indianapolis bringing guns to school in Indianapolis. A former trap shooter, the representative kept a rifle in his locker.
"The teachers taught us to use the guns. We had that education in our schools," Dill said. "I think the pendulum has swung too far away from that."
The National Rifle Association-endorsed DFLer is a co-author of Boudreau's bill but he said he hopes larger fees are established within the bill to help counties pay for the processing and registration.
"I've got a cross-section of sporting arms and hard guns," Dill said. "I live in a place where there isn't really any crime, but if there is we're prepared."
