by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Concealed carry reform is on the move in Minnesota just three months after neighboring Michigan passed its own CCW measure, making it far more likely that Minnesota could become the 33rd state to pass “right-to-carry” legislation.
The bill got a jump start during a recent hearing before the state House Crime Prevention Committee. Texas state Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp, a survivor of the 1991 Luby’s cafeteria massacre in Killeen, TX, and that state’s leading advocate for concealed carry, traveled north for the Minnesota hearing. She delivered dramatic testimony that helped sway the committee to approve the bill, HF-1360, by an overwhelming 11-5 margin. The measure is sponsored by state Rep. Lynda Boudreau (R-Faribault).
Almost simultaneously, Gov. Jesse Ventura suggested he supports the measure, which adds even more steam to its engine, said Prof. Joe Olson, president of Minnesota’s Concealed Carry Reform NOW group. That’s the same group that got right-to-carry included on the state Republican Party platform.
“We anticipate the bill will pass out of the House this year,” Olson said. “The Senate is Democrat-controlled, but they all will have to run for re-election in new districts next year, so we think they will be much more amenable to pleasing the citizens. The governor coming out in support changes all the dynamics.”
Olson, a former National Rifle Association director and founding member of an organization called Academics for the Second Amendment (A2A), told Gun Week that there is great public support for CCW legislation in Minnesota, provided the law has a training requirement and a “safety valve” provision, allowing local sheriffs and police chiefs to provide proof that someone might become a menace if they were issued a pistol permit. He also noted that persons who are listed in the state’s criminal gang investigative data system may not be granted a permit.
Under the proposed law, a Minnesota permit would be good for a period of three years. Sometime during each three-year period, CCW holders would be required to take a safety course and present evidence they had passed the course. Such courses must be taught by certified instructors, including those certified by the NRA, the American Society for Law Enforcement Training (ASLET), the state Department of Natural Resources, Department of Public Safety or Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), or similar agencies in other states.
Reciprocity Included
Also included in the legislation is a reciprocity provision that will recognize licenses issued by other states with “substantially similar” laws governing the issuance of carry licenses. The state attorney general will be required to determine which states meet that criteria, and will publish a list of the states that don’t.
Persons holding licenses from states not on the attorney general’s list will be able to carry concealed in Minnesota on their home-state license, provided they do so under all the requirements of the Minnesota law.
Another tenet of the legislation is a requirement that sheriffs destroy records or data that are not necessary to support a permit that is outstanding or eligible for renewal.
Also, sheriffs must conduct background checks annually, at a minimum, to ensure that the permit holder remains eligible. Sheriffs may conduct additional background checks on a permit holder at any time while the permit is in effect.
Perhaps most important, Olson said, issuance of CCW permits would be placed entirely in the hands of county sheriffs, removing the authority of local police chiefs to issue permits. There’s a certain logic to this, he suggested. Every one of Minnesota’s sheriffs is an elected official. There are also enhanced penalties for permit holders convicted of firearms felonies.
Dramatic Testimony
Hupp’s testimony gripped members of the House panel during the hearing. She related the details of that fateful afternoon in 1991 when a crazed gunman smashed a truck into the Luby’s Cafeteria, then proceeded to shoot to death 21 people, including both of her parents. It is a story she has had to repeat many times, before state and congressional lawmakers, and in the pages of various publications, including Gun Week.
Hupp, who was not yet a member of the Texas legislature at the time of the massacre, had left a pistol in her car because, under Texas law at that time, she could not legally carry the gun into the restaurant in her purse.
Texans had attempted to pass concealed carry legislation in several legislative sessions, but former Democratic Gov. Ann Richards had vetoed the bill. It was a veto that many say cost Richards the governor’s mansion.
When George W. Bush ran for governor against Richards, one of his earliest, and most often-repeated campaign promises was that he would sign a right-to-carry law if passed again by the Legislature.
But that came too late to help Hupp and her parents. She told the Minnesota lawmakers, “I wasn’t mad at the guy who did it…I was mad as heck at my legislators, who legislated me out of a right to protect my family.”
She called the old Texas law, which was similar to what Minnesota has right now, “discriminatory” and “potentially racist.”
After the Luby’s shooting, Hupp—a chiropractor by profession—subsequently began campaigning for concealed carry reform in the Lone Star state. Her activism later led to a successful run for legislative office as a Republican, and she now is considered by many Texans to be their legislative “watchdog” on gun rights.
Hupp’s testimony was challenged by four Minnesota clergymen who told the committee that the proposed CCW reform package is motivated by fear, not public safety, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
Grassroots Support
Olson’s organization brought Hupp to Minneapolis for the hearing. He also said the group is attempting to raise funds in an effort to build grassroots support for the CCW bill.
Opponents are led by a group calling itself Citizens for a Safer Minnesota. They are supported by the League of Women Voters and the Children’s Defense Fund, along with several other groups representing the medical community, sheriffs and police chiefs, the Star-Tribune reported. However, apparently none of those organizations was represented at the hearing, while public testimony largely supported the pro-gun side of the issue.
According to Olson, the measure now goes before the House Civil Law Committee, and at least one other committee, before going to the full House for a floor vote. He predicted it will pass the House.
“Then we start pounding on the Senate,” he said.