Legislative Update - Rep. Tom Murphy

Make Your Voice Heard!

This weekend I along with Representative Backer will be hosting a town hall on gun legislation that is coming before us quickly. This will be a great opportunity to hear directly from all of you on this issue.

House Democrats are moving quickly on infringing on our second amendment rights with their top priority pieces of gun control legislation. These include Universal Background checks which greatly expands which firearm sales require a background check and in doing so essentially creates a registry of every gun sale and transfer that could be traced. The red flag bill is equally as bad as it looks to strip gun rights from individuals without proper due process. The lack of process and protections in the bill leaves it wide open for abuses as a form of retaliation by wrongfully reporting someone.

The next two of their priority bills are expanded storage requirements and mandatory reporting for lost and stolen firearms. These bills continue the Democrat's trend of treating lawful gun owners worse than they do convicted criminals by victim-blaming them in the event of a theft and putting them at a severe disadvantage in the event they need to defend themselves. Their “safe storage” bill, as they call it, requires guns and ammo to be stored in two separate safes. In the unfortunate event of a home invasion, this puts victims at a severe disadvantage when defending themselves.

I will always defend our second amendment rights and will do everything in my power to stop these bills as they make their way through committee. I look forward to hearing from all of you this weekend at our town hall as well.

Visiting testifier in Committee

In the Transportation Committee this week I was honored to have nationally renowned transportation expert and Otter Tail County alumni Rick West testify before us. The committee was hearing HF 975 which would update the procedures around the retrieval of contents when a vehicle is impounded. Rick has served Otter Tail County for over 30 years notably as the county Highway Department Engineer, and as Public Works Director. He is a well-respected figure in the Minnesota transportation community and is recognized nationally as an innovator in the Toward Zero Deaths national safety standards.

(https://fb.watch/iLHhUCDHNv/)

A Win for Homeschoolers

Previously I as well as many of my Republican colleagues pointed out how HF 1269 would have added onerous mandates on homeschoolers and you all made your voices heard. An amendment was accepted on the bill that removes these excessive standardized testing requirements on homeschooled students. This is a great win for rights in education and shows exactly how even in the minority we can have successes in the legislative process.

On the House Floor

On the House floor this week we debated the Earned Sick and Safe Time bill that requires all businesses in Minnesota to provide 48 hours of paid sick time per year. While it is important that Minnesota workers have access to time off in the event they need it this bill adds more regulation and massive fines that will crush many small businesses that are already struggling. The free market has already done the work of providing these kinds of benefits to employees and acts as a great incentive to bring in strong talent. I don’t believe we should be interfering in the employer/employee relationship in this way to force a one size fits all mandate on our business community.

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