Glimpse of bipartisanship dashed as controversial gun control measures are packaged with Republican proposals

Today Senate Democrats chose partisan and political gun policy over commonsense bipartisanship. Democrats continue to pass controversial legislation relying on the deciding vote of Democrat Senator has been charged with a felony crime of violence. The bill includes some Republican language to increase the penalties for those who act as a straw purchaser by buying a gun for someone who legally can’t have one. However, it also turns law-abiding gun owners into criminals with the controversial binary trigger ban. Notably, it does not include a third provision, safe storage requirements, which have been criticized as unworkable and potentially dangerous in the case of emergencies.

“There was bipartisan agreement available today, but Democrats choose to be partisan and political – and we all noticed they don’t have the votes to pass their full agenda,” Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) said. “Rather than work with Republicans to find agreement, they continue to rely on a charged felon to cast the deciding vote.”

Senate Republicans offered an amendment to find bipartisanship on the straw purchaser penalties. It was based on a bill from Sen. Julia Coleman (R-Waconia) that was the subject of a very unusual committee move where it was pulled from the floor back to the Judiciary and Public Safety committee for a second hearing, after already having been passed by the committee. It was then abandoned for Sen. Heather Gustafson’s (D-Vadnais Heights) clone version of the Coleman bill, which was promptly amended with the Democrat’s preferred language on partisan votes.

“Democrats continue to prove the most important thing to them is keeping their power. We could have worked together on my bill, which had bipartisan support last year, but instead they choose this very partisan and highly political path to pass bills,” Coleman said. “A clean bill increasing penalties for straw purchases would have had broad bipartisan support, but instead the inserted controversial and unconstitutional language that makes regular gun owners criminals on a subjective premise.”

Based on the tragedy in Burnsville earlier this year, Republicans also proposed increasing the penalties for straw purchasers from five years to ten years if the firearm they purchased to give to someone ineligible is used to assault or cause harm to a public safety officer. The amendment was adopted with broad bipartisan support, including by the bill’s author, Sen. Gustafson.