No banning permit to carry holders from having firearm in Capitol Complex

A State Capitol hearing room was not packed for a bill related to firearms; however, there was no way to know if any attendees were packing heat.

A person with a permit to carry can now have their firearm when at the seat of state government; people without a permit cannot.

Sponsored by Rep. Brion Curran (DFL-White Bear Lake), HF3357 would also prohibit permit-to-carry holders from possessing firearms in the Capitol Area. An exception would be made for House security staff who carry firearms pursuant to federal law that permits retired peace officers to carry a firearm in public places.

The bill failed to garner House State Government Finance and Policy Committee approval Thursday along party lines. It has 25 DFL co-sponsors and zero Republicans.

“This bill has been around for years as have many members of this committee. I can assure the public today that what we’re seeing is yet another failure of the House GOP to even entertain compromise,” Curran said.

Limited committee debate — at times with numerous interruptions, including accusations of impugning motives — was along the traditional firearm arguments that have, too, been around for years: safety vs. Second Amendment rights.

“Let us create sacred space for words, not guns,” is one way Rep. Kristin Bahner (DFL-Maple Grove) described the bill after emotionally recalling the events of last June 14 when Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman was assassinated and the accused gunman also visited Bahner’s home.

“Somehow, I believed that Minnesota Nice insulated this place, a North Star untouched by violence, but last June that vision was shattered as a gunman took our beloved speaker leaving a voice we can’t ever fill. Our colleagues were targeted, they were stalked and they were hunted by a gunman prepared to kill me and my family. Everyone in this room carries invisible wounds that may never heal.

“Returning to this space has been harder than I anticipated. A place where I once took solace, where our leaders taught us to rise above the partisanship, to take off our red jerseys and our blue jerseys, and to do the people’s work. But doing that work with the threat of guns looming over our heads, over our words, is an immense weight to bear. For me, that means standing on the House Floor trembling with fear, but that is what I will do. And I will stand bravely and defiantly on that floor because my community needs to see their representative standing up for them.”

The Senate now bans firearms and dangerous weapons from its gallery.

Anna Leamy, director of government relations and advocacy for the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, had a different take, saying the bill targets “peaceable citizens” who’ve demonstrated a commitment to lawful conduct by removing their ability to exercise self-defense rights at the “seat of democratic participation.”

“Minnesotans should not have to choose between exercising their First Amendment rights and exercising their Second Amendment rights,” she said.

Saying she “appreciates” Second Amendment rights, Bahner said it’s very different when one’s body is on the line. “There is no work environment which we should just be asked to work under that threat. It is the job of our leadership and of our state to step up and to protect the health and safety of every member of this body as they sit on that floor, as well as the general public as they sit in these spaces, to discuss our democratic principles.”

Rep. Ben Davis (R-Merrifield) does not appreciate a bill that aims to take away his right to protect himself where he works for constituents who strongly support the Second Amendment and support the right for him to have a firearm.

“It appears that you’re all for constitutional rights, except for in the people’s house,” he said. “… I want us to be able to protect ourselves.”

A permit-to-carry holder, Committee Co-Chair Rep. Jim Nash (R-Waconia) said people with such designations are “heavily, heavily vetted.”

He spoke of being threatened by people wearing anti-gun shirts and wishing him death.

“You would like to put this into law, and the people who are cheering you on from the sidelines would like to see me shot and killed in front of my family. Are we OK with that? I can’t think that we are.”