Black_Sheep
Member
So much for "nobody wants to take away your guns". Pending legislation in Minnesota would require owners of certain types of firearms and accessories to register, dispose of (sell out of state) or surrender for destruction items outlined in the bills. Conviction for noncompliance will result in felony charges with penalties ranging from $100K fines to a decade or more in prison. With Democrat control of both houses and a Democrat Governor, passage of this legislation is entirely possible. Read it and weep guys...
With the DFL in charge of Minnesota’s legislature and Governor’s office they have decided to come after everyone’s firearms with some highly onerous pieces of legislation. Here are the bills, introduced by the DFL this past week in the state legislature. I have provided a summary of each bill in case you find reading statute confusing or boring.
Whether you just a regular hunter with a bolt action rifle, a competitive shooter, or even a collector, these draconian pieces of legislation are bad for ALL gun owners. Please forward this to every gun owner you know and urge them to contact their elected representatives (especially if they are Democrats) and let them hear your voice in opposition to these bills.
House Bill 238 – https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0238.0.html&session=ls88
• Makes it a felony to possess a firearm on school property. If you have a legal concealed carry permit (and are carrying), or your unloaded hunting rifle is in its case in the trunk of your car, and you go to your kids’ school to pick him/her up, you would be guilty of a felony with a penalty of up to $10k and 5 years in jail. If it is a BB gun, pellet rifle, or toy “replica” gun instead of a actual firearm, it would be a misdemeanor. I find it extremely hypocritical that the elected officials, Hollywood limousine liberals, etal. are telling us average citizens that having armed responders/guards on our schools is a terrible idea (and enacting legislating such as this criminalizing it), while they all send their kids to private schools who employ armed responders/guards to protect their kids.
• This is a bad piece of legislation that doesn’t do anything to protect our schools or our kids. A wacko going to a school to shoot kids is already in violation of something like 30 state and federal gun laws. All this law does is make school’s bigger targets for the wackos, and turns law-abiding citizens (e.g. grandpa on his way home from duck hunting with his unloaded shotgun in the trunk stopping at school to pick up his grandson ) into felons.
House Bill 239 – https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0239.0.html&session=ls88
• Increases the penalty for someone legally carrying a firearm (open or concealed) on property that has posted “No Gun” signs, who has been asked to leave the premises but doesn’t, from a petty misdemeanor to a gross misdemeanor. If convicted a second time for this same type of incident, it would be a felony. There is no statute of limitations for this (from what I can tell), so if the time span between two incidents is 30 years your second incident would result in felony charges.
• This is a bad piece of legislation because it adds excessive penalties against a class of citizens for no other reason than them simply being said class (and we fought against legislation of this kind during this time you may recall called the Civil Rights movement). For example, person A is in a restaurant with a posted “No Guns” sign and is asked to leave by the manager, but refuses to do so. Person B (an off duty cop legally carrying a concealed firearm) is in the same restaurant with a posted “No Guns” sign and is asked to leave by the manager, but refuses. How are these two situations different? Why is person B being charged with a more punitive penalty than person A?
House Bill 240 – https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0240.0.html&session=ls88
• When an individual wishes to purchase a firearm (e.g. bolt action hunting rifle, pistol, shotgun for bird hunting, etc.), the local law enforcement agency responsible for issuing the required purchase permit (typically your Sheriff or local police chief) shall check criminal histories, records and warrant information, the national criminal record repository, and the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. The chief of police or sheriff shall also make a reasonable effort to check other available state and local record-keeping systems (this means things like your healthcare records, DMV, etc.). The chief of police or sheriff shall obtain commitment information from the commissioner of human services. This means if you have ever been seen by a psychiatrist, psychologist, therapist, etc. it can be used as a reason to deny you a permit to purchase a firearm.
• This is a bad piece of legislation because it is far to ambiguous. Does a person with ADHD qualify as a psych case who should be denied the ability to own firearms? We already have numerous state and federal laws that prohibit individuals who are mental cases from owning firearms. It also opens the door for far too much bias on the part of the Sheriff or Police Chief to selectively pick and chose who will or will not be allowed a permit to purchase based on ambiguous language in the bill.
House Bill 241 – https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0241.0.html&session=ls88
• Makes data pertaining to the purchase or transfer of firearms, the possession of assault weapons, and applications for permits to carry firearms that are collected by government entities pursuant to sections 624.712 to 624.719 are private data on individuals. EFFECTIVE DATE. This section is effective September 1, 2013. This is a very good clause in this bill. It would prohibit a news paper from printing the names and address of gun owners (such as happened in New York).
• Defines an “Assault Weapon” as:
o A self-reloading (i.e. “semi-automatic”) rifle or pistol with a fixed magazine that has the capacity to accept more than seven rounds of ammunition, or that has the capacity to accept a detachable magazine, and has one or more of the following: (i) a pistol grip or thumbhole stock; (ii) any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the nontrigger hand; (iii) a folding or telescoping stock; or (iv) a shroud attached to the barrel, or that partially or completely encircles the barrel, allowing the bearer to hold the firearm with the nontrigger hand without being burned, but excluding a slide that encloses the barrel.
o A self-reloading (i.e. “semi-automatic”) shotgun that has one or more of the following: (i) a pistol grip or thumbhole stock; (ii) any feature capable of functioning as a protruding grip that can be held by the nontrigger hand; (iii) a folding or telescoping stock; (iv) a fixed magazine capacity in excess of seven rounds; or (v) an ability to accept a detachable magazine.
o Shotgun with a revolving cylinder.
o Conversion kit, part, or combination of parts, from which an assault weapon can be assembled if those parts are in the possession or under the control of the same person.
• Would make it unlawful for anyone to own or possess an “assault weapon.” I find it odd that elected politicians, government officials, and law enforcement are exempt from this bill!
• Requires person owning an “assault weapon” prior to Feb 1, 2013 to register their “assault weapons.” The registration process includes:
o A background check
o A safety inspection of your home by law enforcement to ensure the firearm is safely stored
o Annual renewal of the registration (with a background check each time). And you are required to pay all background check and registration fees.
o Only use/possess the weapon on your private property or at a range. This means no using your “assault weapon” for hunting unless it is on private land.
o Report the loss or theft of the “assault weapon” to law enforcement within 48 hours of realizing it was lost/stolen. Failure to report is a felony.
o Assault weapons may not be sold or transferred. This means you cannot give an “assault weapon” to someone in your family, as a gift, or to use for a few hours for hunting or sporting purposes, etc.
o A registered owner of an assault weapon may not purchase additional “assault weapons”
o Persons receiving an “assault weapon” as a gift, inheritance, etc. (i.e. they did no buy it themselves) must within 48 hours render it permanently inoperable, or surrender it to the police to be destroyed.
o Any owner of an assault weapon has until Sep 1, 2013 to:
- Register the firearm
- Remove the weapon from the state
- Render it permanently inoperable
- Surrender it to law enforcement for destruction
• If you violate this provision (i.e. you buy an “assault weapon after Feb 1, 2013, or you fail to register your “assault weapons” owned prior to Feb 1, 2013) you are guilty of a felony with a penalty of up to 20 yrs in prison and $100k in fines. This means if you own a vintage WWII Luger pistol, and fail to register it, you’re guilty of a felony.
• This is an extremely bad piece of legislation. While I applaud the intent of the first part intended to protect the names, address, etc. of gun owners from Freedom of Information Act releases, which have been recently shown to be used very irresponsibly by the media, the remainder of this bill is extremely bad. Many rifles used commonly for hunting purposes, sporting purposes, competitive shooting purposes, and home defense purposes would be deemed “assault weapons” and outlawed by this bill. Almost all pistols that accept a magazine would fall under this classification since the vast majority utilize magazine with 7-15 rounds (for example, a vintage WWII Luger would qualify under this legislation as an “assault weapon”), and a pistol if the ideal weapon for home defense. Also, as has been show countless times in the past century in both communist (China) and western (Australia) nations, mandatory gun registration is always followed by confiscations. In every case, crime went up and the citizenry was left unable to defend themselves from criminals who, surprise surprise, never obey the law in the first place.
House Bill 243 – https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0243.0.html&session=ls88
• Outlaws ownership of firearm magazines that hold over 7 rounds of ammunition. Elected politicians, government officials, and law enforcement are exempt from this bill.
• Person in possession of magazines holding over 7 rounds as of Aug 1, 2013 has 120 days to:
o Permanently alter the magazine so it cannot accept over 10 rounds of ammunition
o Remove the magazine from the state
o Surrender the magazine to law enforcement for destruction
• A violation of this provision is a felony with a penalty of up to 20 yrs in prison and $100k in fines.
House Bill 244 – https://www.revisor.mn.gov/bin/bldbill.php?bill=H0244.0.html&session=ls88
• Makes it a gross misdemeanor to report to law enforcement your firearms as lost or stolen when they knowingly have not been. Is a felony on the second conviction. After the first conviction (gross misdemeanor) you are no longer allowed to own/possess a pistol or “assault weapon.”
I urge everyone receiving this e-mail to contact your MN representatives and senators offices, especially if your reps are Democrats. Let your voice be heard, and let them know you oppose legislation such as this and will vote against any politicians who supports/ votes for it. Let’s not allow our elected representatives to turn your neighbor, your son, or your brother into a felon over night with the stroke of a pen. Please forward this e-mail to everyone you know. With a DFL stranglehold on MN government there is very little the Republican Party can do to oppose and stop these bills from being signed into law by Governor Dayton.
To make contacting your representatives simple, quick and easy, here is a link to help you contact them:
NRA-ILA | Write Your Reps
