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Capitol View®
Mark Zdechlik

Committee moves toward tighter Capitol security

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Minnesota’s Capitol complex needs a lot more security guards, and gun owners should register their weapons every five years if they plan to bring them to the Capitol, the Advisory Committee on Capitol Security said Tuesday. The panel is expected to give final approval to those recommendations in early January. The Legislature will then consider them after reconvening on Feb. 25. Panel members, though, remain divided over the weapon registry proposal. Current rules require only that permit carry holders notify state officials before they bring a gun to the Capitol. The proposal would require gun permit holders to provide specific ID information to Capitol security so that authorities could verify their right to carry. "At this point there is no way for the department to check and see unless adequate data is provided for them to check and see, or unless they stop them on the Capitol complex and ask to see their permit," said panel chairwoman Lt. Gov. Yvonne Prettner Solon, who backed the proposed change. Rep. Kelby Woodard, R- Belle Plaine, voted against the proposed requirement, saying it has more to do with bureaucracy than security.  Authorities can already question a Capitol visitor's right to carry under current law, he noted. "Why are we submitting this paper?" Woodard asked.  "It really leads us nowhere." The committee rejected a proposal to ban guns in the Capitol, the nearby State Office Building and the judicial center. It also rejected a proposal to ban guns in legislative hearing rooms and the House and Senate chambers.  Both of those measures failed on tie votes, with Democrats Prettner Solon and Rep. Michael Paymar, DFL-St. Paul voting in favor and Republicans Woodard and Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen, R-Alexandria voting against. State Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie Gildea abstained from voting on any of the gun measures, saying the issue may eventually come before the Supreme Court. As for security personnel, the committee plans to recommend doubling the number of state troopers at the Capitol and adding more than two dozen unarmed security guards.