Hundreds rally at Capitol for tighter gun restrictions

Organizers of the afternoon rally that filled the Capitol Rotunda said students across the nation have been doing a better job this week than adults when talking about gun violence. Eva Goldfarb, a junior at St. Louis Park High School, was among the rally speakers.

"Politicians, we are speaking to you. We are not just asking school shooters to stop shooting. We are asking our government to stop giving them the means to do so," Goldfarb said.

Before the rally, several DFL legislators and members of the group Protect Minnesota met with reporters to highlight bills they want passed.

Measures related to keeping guns away from domestic abusers and universal background checks are carryovers from 2017. One new proposal would lift the prohibition on state health department research of gun violence. Another would study trauma caused by shootings.

The measures could save lives, said Nancy Nord Bence, the executive director of Protect Minnesota.

"It's time to treat gun violence like the public health crisis that it is, by enacting laws that permit research and going upstream to prevent gun violence, instead of responding after tragedies occur and lives are lost," she said.

The Republican committee chairs in the House and Senate who would need to hold hearings on gun bills aren't making any promises.

Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, the chair of the Senate judiciary and public safety committee, said all policymakers are struggling with how to respond to gun violence. He noted he wasn't even thinking about gun bills a week ago. Now, he is.

But Limmer cautioned that he's not interested in extreme proposals from the far left or the far right.

"There is no easy solution to this and there is no one bill that will cure this problem," Limmer said. "As a matter of fact, I'm the one being a realist, I don't think any one bill will ultimately 100 percent stop people that have evil intent to do bad things to good people."

Rep. Brian Johnson, R-Cambridge, the new chair of the House public safety and security committee, is also taking a cautious approach, saying he doesn't know which gun-related bills might get hearings.

"We'll review them and look at them and try to find out what's best for Minnesota," he said. "Minnesota already has some of the strongest gun laws in the country as far as state laws."

Gov. Mark Dayton said he believes Republican legislative leaders aren't interested in doing anything about guns this session. He said some of their recent comments on the subject have been disappointing.

Dayton said a ban on certain types of firearms would have to be done at the federal level to be effective. But at the state level, he favors stricter background checks.

"Is that going to end the proliferation of weapons in Minnesota or elsewhere, or prevent people who shouldn't have them, can't legally have them, from getting their hands on them? No, it's not going to do that," he said. "But does that mean we do nothing because we can't do everything?"

Dayton criticized an idea floated this week by GOP Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka to place a police officer in every school. Dayton said the proposal is inefficient and probably unfeasible.

But Gazelka said he believes schools could tap an existing safety levy to pay the costs. He said his proposal is in an exploratory phase and that he is listening to other ideas.

"One person suggested maybe we should have the National Guard help out," he said. "Another suggestion is that professionals would be allowed to carry in the schools. So, there's a number of things we could do to protect the students."