Gov. Tim Walz, currently under the microscope as a supposed finalist to serve as Kamala Harris’s running mate, utilized the suburban Bloomington City Hall as a backdrop on Thursday to celebrate a new law going into effect that provides stiffer penalties for gun straw purchases.
But a Republican legislator who has carried similar legislation for five years at the Minnesota Capitol said the DFL’s version doesn’t go far enough to put straw purchasers behind bars.
Rep. Peggy Scott, of Andover, first authored a bill in 2019 that would have increased criminal penalties for straw purchases from a gross misdemeanor to a felony. She carried that bill again during the 2024 legislative session as the subject gained much more attention on both sides of the political aisle following a federal criminal investigation in February that alleged a felon who shot and killed three Burnsville first responders had used a gun his girlfriend purchased for him illegally.
“I’ve proudly carried a bill to crack down on straw purchasers for over five years and seeing the DFL celebrate passing a watered-down version of my bill today is disheartening,” Scott said in a press statement on Thursday. “(The DFL) version of my bill will do little to nothing to keep firearms away from those that would use them to harm others.”
A straw purchase occurs when an individual buys a firearm for someone ineligible to purchase or possess them. Those convicted of felonies in Minnesota are prohibited from purchasing or owning firearms.
The straw purchase bill Walz signed into law in May contains language that includes an “affirmative defense” provision, which allows individuals who knowingly purchase firearms for prohibited persons to avoid penalty if they claim that they were “under duress” from the person for whom they purchased the firearm .
“I believe that this is exactly what would have happened to the straw purchaser who supplied multiple firearms to the perpetrator of the tragedy in Burnsville, along with many others,” Scott said.
“We must take seriously our duty to improve public safety, and giving straw purchasers a loophole to avoid adequate prosecution misses the mark.”
Accompanying Walz at the presser to celebrate the DFL version of the bill that passed on the last day of session were Rep. Kaela Berg, DFL-Burnsville, and Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park.
Berg, who was the author of the bill in the House, came under scrutiny in March when Republicans and one Dakota County lawmaker criticized Berg and her Democratic colleagues for playing politics over the issue.
Scott, who had already introduced her version of the bill early in the session, on March 14 made a motion on the House floor to pass the bill, after the public learned of how a straw purchase was used in the Burnsville murder of two police officers and one firefighter/EMT who were responding to a domestic violence call in February. Democrats voted down Scott’s version, and then days later, Berg introduced a straw purchase bill of her own that included the “affirmative defense” provision, which Republicans opposed. It also included a “binary trigger” ban that many gun rights organizations oppose. That ban won’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2025. Lobbyists with the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus have told their supporters they believe it may be subject to a legal challenge.
Despite that, Walz and his DFL colleagues said Thursday that the enactment of the law elevating the criminal penalty for straw purchases is just the “first step” in a line of additional gun restriction bills they will work to get passed in the 2025 legislative session, including but not limited to a controversial “safe storage” law and enhanced penalties for those who fail to report lost or stolen firearms.
Walz, DFL promise more gun control measure coming in 2025
Sen. Ron Latz, who chairs the Senate Public Safety and Judiciary Committee, also said he wants to see an “assault weapons” ban on the federal level, as he doesn’t believe his caucus has the votes to pass it in Minnesota. Walz nodded his head in agreement.
“We’re talking about guns of war. They really have no place in our streets or in our households and they’re not really needed for self-defense,” Latz said. “There might be a few other things out there as well.” Walz nodded again.
Latz, Berg and Bloomington Mayor Tim Busse also mentioned a number of times the “leadership” of Walz and his wife, Minnesota’s First Lady Gwen Walz, who has “championed gun violence reduction measures at the legislature and across the state for years.”
Walz, a former congressman representing southern Minnesota, once proudly touted an NRA endorsement. But when he announced he was running for governor in 2017, he began his pivot to politicking for numerous gun restriction bills the NRA and other Second Amendment rights organizations strongly oppose.
During the 2023 legislative session, Gwen Walz told a group of gun control activists, “we will pass the legislation you’ve heard about. If you want to purchase military-style firearms, why don’t you just join the military?”
Hank Long
Hank Long is a journalism and communications professional whose writing career includes coverage of the Minnesota legislature, city and county governments and the commercial real estate industry. Hank received his undergraduate degree at the University of Minnesota, where he studied journalism, and his law degree at the University of St. Thomas. The Minnesota native lives in the Twin Cities with his wife and four children. His dream is to be around when the Vikings win the Super Bowl.
