Captain Ron
Member
- Joined
- Jul 7, 2003
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Gun law deal falls apart
Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
April 28, 2005 GUNS0429
An apparent deal to reenact Minnesota's invalidated handgun law disintegrated today over a move to subject it to a Senate committee hearing.
"It's probably not going to happen now," said House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, who accused his DFL counterpart in the Senate of reneging on a handshake promise to give the measure an immediate floor vote.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said he is going forward with new plans to give the bill its first hearing ever in a Senate panel. Because of opposition from fellow DFL senators, he added, if he had stuck to the earlier agreement "the bill would have died."
At issue is a 2003 law that allowed about 27,000 people to get Minnesota permits to carry firearms in public before two courts struck it down on grounds that it was unconstitutionally enacted as part of a bill that embraced more than one subject.
Pending an expected review by the Minnesota Supreme Court, the permits remain valid, but new issuances are now governed by a former law that gives police chiefs and sheriffs broad discretion to deny applicants.
Johnson said Wednesday that he had originally agreed to a swift floor vote on the bill, which is nearly identical to the 2003 law. But then he decided to let an ad hoc panel of DFL senators dominated by the measure's critics and a standing committee review the bill for possible amendments.
And that, Sviggum said, means "the bill will either not reappear or appear in a form that is unacceptable. The Senate committee process shouldn't be allowed to kill the bill."
No Senate committee has ever heard provisions of the bill, dubbed the Minnesota Personal Protection Act. It allows any adult who gets handgun training and passes a background check to obtain a permit, but critics have attacked it on many grounds, particularly for limiting the rights of property owners to ban guns on their premises.
Because of DFL Senate leaders' resistance to considering the bill in 2003, it was attached to another measure to force a floor vote. With a group of outstate DFLers voting in favor, it passed 37 to 30. But both Ramsey County District Judge John Finley and the Minnesota Court of Appeals found fault with the legislative process and struck the law down.
Johnson said the bill would likely get even stronger support in the Senate now, following Minnesota's two years of relatively peaceful experience with liberal handgun permitting.
But Sviggum said he probably won't schedule a House floor vote on the bill under the current circumstances because it would be a waste of time. Without Johnson's earlier promise, he added, he wouldn't have authorized Wednesday's House committee meeting that advanced the bill on a 7-5 party-line vote.
Other Republicans and gun-rights advocates focused today on Johnson's reversal of course.
"It's impossible to negotiate with him because you can't trust a single word he's going to say," Joe Olson, president of Concealed Carry Reform Now Inc. said at a State Capitol news conference where Sen. Carrie Ruud, R-Breezy Point, showed off a dance step she called "the Willmar Waffle."
Meanwhile, Sen. Pat Pariseau, R-Farmington, chief Senate sponsor of the handgun bill, acknowledged that passing legislation without Senate committee hearings "may not be a good idea, but it's the only way we could get it through."
Johnson, however, said such hearings were necessary "so we don't find ourselves back in court like the Republicans did the last time around."
Then he lobbed another shot across the aisle: "There's one common attribute among the Republicans - anger. It cost them 13 [House] seats in the last election."
Conrad deFiebre is at [email protected].
Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune
April 28, 2005 GUNS0429
An apparent deal to reenact Minnesota's invalidated handgun law disintegrated today over a move to subject it to a Senate committee hearing.
"It's probably not going to happen now," said House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, who accused his DFL counterpart in the Senate of reneging on a handshake promise to give the measure an immediate floor vote.
Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson, DFL-Willmar, said he is going forward with new plans to give the bill its first hearing ever in a Senate panel. Because of opposition from fellow DFL senators, he added, if he had stuck to the earlier agreement "the bill would have died."
At issue is a 2003 law that allowed about 27,000 people to get Minnesota permits to carry firearms in public before two courts struck it down on grounds that it was unconstitutionally enacted as part of a bill that embraced more than one subject.
Pending an expected review by the Minnesota Supreme Court, the permits remain valid, but new issuances are now governed by a former law that gives police chiefs and sheriffs broad discretion to deny applicants.
Johnson said Wednesday that he had originally agreed to a swift floor vote on the bill, which is nearly identical to the 2003 law. But then he decided to let an ad hoc panel of DFL senators dominated by the measure's critics and a standing committee review the bill for possible amendments.
And that, Sviggum said, means "the bill will either not reappear or appear in a form that is unacceptable. The Senate committee process shouldn't be allowed to kill the bill."
No Senate committee has ever heard provisions of the bill, dubbed the Minnesota Personal Protection Act. It allows any adult who gets handgun training and passes a background check to obtain a permit, but critics have attacked it on many grounds, particularly for limiting the rights of property owners to ban guns on their premises.
Because of DFL Senate leaders' resistance to considering the bill in 2003, it was attached to another measure to force a floor vote. With a group of outstate DFLers voting in favor, it passed 37 to 30. But both Ramsey County District Judge John Finley and the Minnesota Court of Appeals found fault with the legislative process and struck the law down.
Johnson said the bill would likely get even stronger support in the Senate now, following Minnesota's two years of relatively peaceful experience with liberal handgun permitting.
But Sviggum said he probably won't schedule a House floor vote on the bill under the current circumstances because it would be a waste of time. Without Johnson's earlier promise, he added, he wouldn't have authorized Wednesday's House committee meeting that advanced the bill on a 7-5 party-line vote.
Other Republicans and gun-rights advocates focused today on Johnson's reversal of course.
"It's impossible to negotiate with him because you can't trust a single word he's going to say," Joe Olson, president of Concealed Carry Reform Now Inc. said at a State Capitol news conference where Sen. Carrie Ruud, R-Breezy Point, showed off a dance step she called "the Willmar Waffle."
Meanwhile, Sen. Pat Pariseau, R-Farmington, chief Senate sponsor of the handgun bill, acknowledged that passing legislation without Senate committee hearings "may not be a good idea, but it's the only way we could get it through."
Johnson, however, said such hearings were necessary "so we don't find ourselves back in court like the Republicans did the last time around."
Then he lobbed another shot across the aisle: "There's one common attribute among the Republicans - anger. It cost them 13 [House] seats in the last election."
Conrad deFiebre is at [email protected].
