This is going nowhere.
It’s been a month since Gov. Tim Walz said that he would like to call a special session of the Minnesota Legislature to address gun violence following the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic school and church in Minneapolis.
Since then, Annunciation parents have advocated for a statewide ban on assault rifles, a state Senate panel met to discuss gun proposals, legislative leaders have convened privately with Walz to negotiate the terms of a session, Walz floated the idea of a constitutional amendment to ban assault weapons, and, on Tuesday, the governor proposed what he would like to see happen in a hypothetical special session.
None of this talk has gotten Minnesota closer to changing its gun laws.
In fact, the news Tuesday, as such, was less Walz’s plan and more legislative leaders saying that talks with the governor unraveled.
“A meeting with Gov. Walz and legislative leaders broke down this morning after about ten minutes when Democrats abruptly ended the meeting and indicated they would no longer work with Republicans to find agreement for a special session,” reads a press release from the office of Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-Grand Forks.
Related: Stuck in the mud on assault weapons ban, Walz floats idea of constitutional amendment
Asked at a news conference about whether talks really did fall apart, Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy, DFL-St. Paul, said, “We’re at an impasse. I’m not surprised, but I am undeterred, and will continue to work with my colleagues in the House and with the governor.”
The governor’s proposal for what legislation to pass at the special session copies and pastes measures debated at Senate gun working group meetings two weeks ago. These include a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and a host of smaller measures such as requiring guns to have serial numbers.
At the working group meetings, Republicans could not have made it more clear that they oppose each of these gun control bills.
Walz’s proposal does include three bipartisan areas of cooperation.
One is a specific measure to increase criminal penalties for impersonating a police officer. Vance Boelter, the charged suspect in the shooting of Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, is accused of pretending to be an officer in order to gain entry into the homes of Hortman and Hoffman.
The others are increased funding for school safety and mental health treatments, proposals favored by House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring.
Walz’s proposal does not say what mental health care or school security he would like to see more of. Instead, the governor’s plan gets into process questions, like when he wants to see the special session start and end (next Monday, Oct. 6th and Sunday, Oct. 12th for those scoring at home).
Related: At heated Senate hearing, Minnesota Republicans did not budge on guns
If nothing else, the governor’s announcement is a reminder that DFLers will continue to focus on gun violence, even with the Legislature not regularly scheduled to meet until February.
“We’re not going to give up on this,” DFL House Leader Zack Stephenson of Coon Rapids told reporters. “We’ll keep talking about it throughout the rest of the interim if that’s what it takes, throughout the regular session, in the campaign, and into 2027. We’re in it for the long haul.”
The post Not breaking: Tim Walz wants an assault weapons ban. Minnesota Republicans don’t appeared first on MinnPost.
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