St. Paul, MN – Patriots behind Minnesota’s largest and most prominent pro-gun organization are patting themselves on the back today after a well-earned victory in St Paul as two nasty anti-gun amendments were struck down in the Senate Judiciary Committee! Notoriously anti-gun Senator Ron Latz brought forward his two gun control amendments, Red Flag Gun Seizures and Universal Gun Registration.
But Minnesota’s most widely recognized gun rights organization, Minnesota Gun Rights, had their members primed and ready to go! When news of the two amendments reached gun owners, they poured heat onto the nine members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Ben Dorr, Executive Director of Minnesota Gun Rights, shot a live video from outside the Capital. In the video, he reported that more than 5,000 emails had been sent to members of the committee in only eighteen hours leading up to the hearing. More than that, Minnesota Gun Rights has been running a statewide video ad opposing Senator Ron Latz’ Gun Registration bill and has been seen by more than 27,000 gun owners in just a few days.
Nobody could withstand that kind of pressure and after a brutal hearing, both Amendments failed. Sorry, Leftists! No Red Flags or Universal Background checks made it out of the Senate Judiciary Committee today!
Of course, there are dozens more bills they could try to amend them on or file yet during the final 10 weeks of the 2020 session, so gun owners aren’t out of the woods, yet. But grassroots gun owners made their point loud and clear: we’re not having your gun control.
Anti-Gun Politics 101: How to Play the Game
Mr. Dorr made another good point in his video. Dem. Senator Ron Latz had filed both of these amendments as their own bills last year. The Red Flag amendment was verbatim from last year’s attempt. But the ‘Universal Background Check bill’ had some noticeable changes.
Last year, Democrat Latz had been arrogant. He thought that passing a Universal Gun Registration bill was a foregone conclusion. His 2019 bill was radically anti-gun, with no exemptions to the background check rule, not even for family. If you wanted to give your shotgun to your son, buy a gun for your wife or even loan a shotgun to a friend for a hunting trip, you’d have to go through a background check and put your name on a government database!
Minnesota Gun Rights members crushed his gun control dreams in 2019, hammering the legislature with over 120,000 emails in opposition to his bills.
Because of that, Latz’s 2020 version had all the ‘regular’ exemptions for those common scenarios. Latz realized that he couldn’t try to pass the same nasty bill he’d tried to pass in 2019, so he made the bill more palatable to appear moderate and reasonable.
But as Ben Dorr pointed out, the minute his bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and reached the Senate floor for a full Senate vote, Latz would immediately remove those exemptions and ram through the nasties gun registration bill in American history! It weas a trick play, but gun owners caught it. As Dorr said, “That’s how the game is played, folks!”
So this Democrat is crafty. He’s 100% committed to getting his gun control passed and gun owners are just as committed to stopping him.
Republicans Busy Selling Out
But where were Minnesota’s stalwart Republicans? They didn’t do a darn thing. In fact, Republican Senator – and Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee – Warren Limmer slammed gun owners during the hearing, calling Constitutional Carry and Stand Your Ground ‘extreme fringe’ bills that will never get passed in the GOP controlled Senate.
Fringe bills? THIRTY-SIX STATES have Stand Your Ground law! Fifteen states already have Constitutional Carry! And this isn’t the first time we’ve come across Limmer mocking and insulting gun owners.
If these Republicans think that these basic Constitutional rights are “fringe bills” then it’s no wonder the Democrats think they can crap all over gun owners. One thing is clear, gun owners in Minnesota are fired up and fighting back to a degree we’ve rarely seen in Second Amendment politics. Gun owners in Virginia could learn a thing or two. Check out Ben Dorr’s video below. We love this confrontational style of politics!