Bill to allow local governments to regulate firearms fails in committee

A day after a House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee failed to approve a ban on possessing semiautomatic military-style assault weapons, a bill that would allow local governments to pass their own gun regulations met the same fate in a different committee.

Sponsored by Rep. Dave Pinto (DFL-St. Paul), HF3351 would repeal the state pre-emption of local governments for regulating firearms thereby allowing local governments to regulate firearms with “reasonable, nondiscriminatory, and nonarbitrary ordinances, [and] the location of businesses where firearms are sold by a firearms dealer.”

“We are hearing from local officials that they want to, and deserve to, take steps to protect their communities,” Pinto said.

However, a 6-6 party-line vote keeps the bill in possession of the House Elections Finance and Government Operations Committee.

Local governments cannot create ordinances that regulate firearms except for regulations identical to state law, and specifically on where firearms may be discharged.

“Granting reasonable local authority is not about removing rights. It’s about giving communities the ability to respond responsibly to their community’s needs,” said Kristen Neville, a mother of five children attending Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.

St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey provided written support for the bill.

“If state leaders aren’t willing to come together to pass gun safety laws for all of Minnesota, then I respectfully request that you pass HF3351, to enable us to keep our communities safe by acting at the local level,” Her wrote.

[MORE: Written testimony on HF3351]

Moriah Day, Midwest region director for government relations-state affairs at The Firearm Industry Trade Association, opposes the bill, saying it would create “a patchwork of conflicting local ordinances, create legal confusion, cause economic harm, and introduce additional compliance challenges to your constituents.”

Speaking on behalf of the National Rifle Association, Brian Gosch compared the potential patchwork gun laws that would be made by the bill to other areas that require statewide uniform laws like traffic and tax law. “There are certain areas of the law that should be uniform across the state,” he said.

For Rep. Ben Davis (R-Merrifield), the case was simpler: “It gives cities the right to violate rights.”