New Minnesota law aims to prevent straw gun purchasing

CATHY WURZER: A state law goes into effect today that makes it a felony in Minnesota to buy a gun for someone who is not legally eligible to own one. This is called straw purchasing, and it was a misdemeanor offense until state lawmakers passed a bill to increase the penalties. Governor Tim Walz signed it into law. Just as this year's legislative session was getting underway, three first responders were killed in Burnsville. It later came out that the gunman had used a weapon he acquired through straw purchasing.

Earlier this morning, Governor Walz and other state leaders, including Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Superintendent Drew Evans, held a news conference earlier to highlight the new law. And Superintendent Evans joins me right now. Thanks for the time.

DREW EVANS: Thanks for having me, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: Before we dive into the specifics of this new law, what's a typical scenario when someone tries to buy a gun for someone who can't legally have one?

DREW EVANS: Yeah, so there's certain people that we all know that are prohibited for a variety of different reasons from possessing a firearm. In those situations, that's why we have strenuous background checks in place so that when they go and try to purchase a firearm, they're not allowed to buy one. What straw purchasing does is it's an attempt to thwart that system and thwart our background check processes to make sure that that individual can't get a firearm.

And so they contact or work with another individual who is able to buy a firearm. They purchase it and then give it to that person who is ineligible to possess the firearm. So in other words, they get around the laws that we have in place that are very strong to get them that firearm when we as a society have determined they should not possess one.

CATHY WURZER: I'm curious. There's this federal ban on gun straw purchases, and such purchases have been illegal in Minnesota. And in spite of these laws, there's evidence that straw purchases are still a pretty big problem. So how might this new law in the state help in curtailing these gun transfers?

DREW EVANS: Well, this new law does two things. One of the things you referenced, the terrible, tragic situation in Burnsville where we had our first responders that were responding, trying to protect children in this domestic violence situation, and they were shot and killed in the line of duty. We determined in that situation that he got that firearm from his live in partner at the time. And she knew that he was ineligible from possessing the firearm.

I can't talk about specifics of that case, because it's in federal court right now. But what I can tell you is the reason it went to federal court is because the penalties in that particular case in Minnesota were very low. As you mentioned, it was a misdemeanor before. And I think it was incumbent upon us to make sure that the penalties fit the crime. This was a crime that was facilitated by that illegal purchase of the firearm, and it resulted in the death of three first responders and another one who was injured in the line of duty.

And so this brings the penalty up to be a felony in Minnesota. It also puts protections in place for those who are victims of domestic violence. And it also changes the standard so that it's easier for us to prove this particular crime under Minnesota state statutes by changing our standard from knowingly purchased for a person that was ineligible to the person should reasonably know that that person was ineligible from possessing that firearm.

CATHY WURZER: I do want to ask about that. I want to go back just a moment here to the situation, if I could, in Burnsville, because you mentioned an abusive partner and that individual did say that she was being abused. What happens to those who, say, might be coerced or forced into buying firearms by an abusive partner under this law?

DREW EVANS: So under our law, there was some changes that were made to the existing statute that puts into place an affirmative defense, meaning that if that person was abused and they were forced to purchase those firearms on behalf of their abuser, they would be able to exercise that defense if they were charged with this to show that they did it under duress. They did not purchase that firearm of their own free will. And so they have that protection in place.

Ultimately, at the end of the day, we want to hold individuals who are knowingly engaged in this type of crime accountable. And we want to make sure that we protect victims of domestic violence from not being criminalized because of the forced nature or the abusive relationship that they're in the middle of.

CATHY WURZER: So I want to then go back now to what you said about prosecutors no longer have to prove the purchaser knew the person they were buying for was ineligible. They have to prove they reasonably should have known. How significant is that change? And is it hard to prove that someone should reasonably have know?

DREW EVANS: So you still have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt in court that the person reasonably should have known. But what it does is it gives us additional tools. We might be able to, during the course of the investigation, uncover paperwork, messages between the individuals, a variety of different mechanisms we'd have now available that we won't have to prove specifically that they actually knew, that they had actual knowledge of their ineligibility, that we can prove it by the reasonableness that that person, through a multitude of different pieces of information, would have reasonably known that that person was ineligible to possess that firearm. That was part of the case here, as we referenced in Burnsville, in terms of taking a look at. But when the totality of it all came together, you see why federal charges have been announced in that particular case.

CATHY WURZER: Right. And I'm wondering, your investigators have been working in this case for a while and other cases. How do investigators find out that a gun was purchased using straw purchasing? Because I would think you usually find out after a violent crime has occurred, which is much too late.

DREW EVANS: Yeah, it is too late. And so part of the purpose of this is to make sure that there's a deterrent effect, that if you do this, it is a felony and you'll have a felony if you engage in this type of conduct. The way that we figure this out, though, is through the traditional investigative process. Oftentimes, the first point of sale from a federally licensed firearms dealer, they record the individual that purchased that firearm.

That's often what straw purchasing involves. They go to a place that sells firearms and they're licensed by the federal government. And then we're able to trace that firearm back and identify the individual that first bought it. And then being able to work through the traditional investigative process, tracing from person to person where that firearm went, we're able to do that. The ATF maintains that system, and they're strong partners, both in straw purchasing at the federal level when it merits a federal investigation, and they also assist us on a daily basis with our local and state investigations.

CATHY WURZER: Yet earlier this week, Superintendent had talked with a reporter from Fox 9 News, Nathan O'Neill, and he has been reporting that six Midwestern Fleet Farm stores were found to have sold a pretty big number of guns to straw purchasers. So I'm wondering what responsibilities do retailers have, like, say, a Fleet Farm or another type of business, to make sure that customers are buying guns only for themselves? Are there holes in that safety net?

DREW EVANS: Well, I think that's one of the things you're seeing when it comes to entities such as Fleet Farm, as you're noting. The ATF has a fairly robust process in terms of auditing and working together, but there is no prohibition on a certain number of guns that you can purchase as an individual. But as you note, there should be some patterns that people start identifying.

If there's large volumes of purchases by the same individual and they're determined to be crime guns, meaning guns that were used in crimes at a later date, which should lead to a place where we can do more to make sure that we're notifying, identifying, and that we're holding those accountable, that are engaged in that. That's part of what this law is. We need to focus on those individuals and partner with the community that's engaged in selling a firearm so that we can identify those individuals and then go and hold them accountable if they're engaged in straw purchasing.

CATHY WURZER: Say, before you go, this bill I also believe banned binary triggers. For folks not familiar, what are those and what might the impact of that ban be?

DREW EVANS: Yeah, so a binary trigger is a trigger that is usually aftermarket on a firearm, often a rifle, that fires one projectile when you pull the trigger back that you would do with a traditional trigger on a firearm, and then it fires another projectile when you release the trigger. It effectively doubles the rate of fire for any firearm.

In this case in Burnsville, that type of firearm was utilized. And from our perspective, when we listen to the audio in that particular case, and it was reported to us that they thought Gooden was firing an automatic firearm at the time. By banning this particular trigger and having such a high rate of fire, it's just one small step to help keep our first responders and those in the community more safe so that they can take appropriate action so that they don't have so many bullets flying at them when they're trying to do the best to protect children and everybody in the community.

CATHY WURZER: And I believe that ban goes into effect January 1 of 2025, right?

DREW EVANS: Yes. It goes into effect January 1 of 2025, because we recognize that there are people that still have these. So our policymakers, the legislature, moved that effective date out. So anybody that has one of those now can take different steps so that they're not in possession of it when it becomes an effective law.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Superintendent Evans, thanks for the time today.

DREW EVANS: Thank you for having me.

CATHY WURZER: Drew Evans is the Superintendent of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.