House DFLers ramp up push for vote on gun control package as session deadline looms

— UPDATED at 8:51 p.m. after floor action

Thursday was the day when the always-simmering debate over guns boiled over in the House.

While Wednesday night’s announcement of a budget agreement made headlines for a few hours Thursday, House DFLers returned to a series of efforts to get a gun control and gun violence prevention package up for a vote on the House Floor.

Their focus is HF3874/SF4067* that was passed 34-33 along party lines by the Senate May 4. The bill, which includes a ban on the sale of semiautomatic military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, has yet to be reported in the House.

DFL frustration over House Speaker Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) sequestering the bill for more than a week has become evident.

“Hold the vote! Hold the vote! Hold the vote!” — combined with loud rhythmic hand claps — was chanted repeatedly by DFL lawmakers for about five minutes after the House went into recess late Thursday morning.

[MORE: Watch continuing coverage of Thursday's floor session]

Gun safety advocates rally outside the House Chamber Thursday morning to demand the gun control package passed by the Senate last week be brought to the House Floor for a vote before the end of the legislative session. (Photo by Michele Jokinen)

This came shortly after the latest of several attempts this week by House DFL Floor Leader Jamie Long (DFL-Mpls) to press Demuth on the whereabouts of the Senate gun control package.

“Yesterday when I asked about the status of the bill, you said that it would be released at the appropriate time, and I’m wondering if today is that day,” Long said.

“That bill is being reviewed” Demuth replied, echoing previous replies that releasing the bill is the “speaker’s prerogative.”

Prior to Thursday, Demuth and House Republican Floor Leader Harry Niska (R-Ramsey) had not given a reason for the Senate bill going missing in action, other than to say that such a comprehensive bill would have to go through the committee process.

They elaborated a bit more at a Thursday news conference.

Demuth said House committees have heard several DFL-sponsored gun control bills that are in the Senate bill, but they failed due to a lack of bipartisan support. “We have absolutely taken votes; they just haven’t turned in the way that we’re hearing some people want.”

Even if a committee referral came soon, getting a floor vote is highly unlikely with the legislative clock quickly winding down to Sunday’s 11:59 p.m. deadline to pass bills.

Try a different bill or tactic

When the floor session resumed Thursday afternoon, DFLers made a motion to suspend House rules to take up HF5140, basically a clone bill to the Senate bill, that was just introduced Wednesday.

Such a motion needs the support of 90 of the 134 members of the House, and after six-plus hours of debate, the motion failed.

With continuing inaction, Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura (DFL-Mpls) announced Wednesday that she and some of her DFL colleagues would be holding an overnight sit-in until the Senate bill is heard. At the end of Thursday's session, and before more "Hold the Vote" chants began, Rep. Liish Kozlowski (DFL-Duluth) confirmed the sit-in would occur.  

“We will be doing this for the community of Annunciation, the parents and families of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel, and for everyone across Minnesota who has lost someone to gun violence,” Sencer-Mura said.

In a statement, Sencer-Mura asked: “What is Speaker Lisa Demuth so afraid of? The very fact that she’s breaking her promise to Annunciation families to not block the bill from coming to the floor, tells me that she’s afraid it will pass.”

A similar event took place in April 2018 when former representative and now-Sen. Erin Maye Quade (DFL-Apple Valley) held a 24-hour sit-in to protest stalled gun control proposals in the Republican-controlled Legislature.

Maye Quade’s action did not lead to any change in legislative direction on gun control in 2018, and based on Thursday’s activities, nothing will change the well-entrenched positions both sides have on the issue in 2026.