Conrad Defiebre,� Star Tribune April 28, 2005 GUNS0428
Minnesota's invalidated handgun law may be on its way to swift reenactment by the Legislature and Gov. Tim Pawlenty, advocates on both sides of the issue said Wednesday.
That prediction came as a House committee, after a one-word change, reapproved a bill that would allow any adult who gets handgun training and passes a background check to obtain a state permit to carry firearms in public.
"It's got the votes to pass, and the governor's going to sign it," said Rep. Nora Slawik, DFL-Maplewood, a leading opponent.
House sponsor Larry Howes, R-Walker, added: "I've been informed that when we send it off the House floor there will be a vote in the Senate."
Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson confirmed that a Senate floor vote will be held before the May 23 adjournment, but only after an ad hoc working group and a standing committee consider further changes.
"Some folks who opposed it last session are going to vote for it if a few wrinkles are worked out," Johnson said, singling out concerns of some churches over banning guns in their parking lots and rental property.
Pawlenty "signed the bill once and he'd sign it again," said his spokesman, Brian McClung.
When the law was in effect in 2003 and 2004, about 27,000 Minnesotans got handgun permits, more than doubling the number licensed under a more restrictive former system that gave broad discretion to police chiefs and sheriffs to deny permit applicants. Proponents say the new permit holders have caused so little trouble that they pose no serious threat to public safety.
"With one or two tiny exceptions, permit holders have been virtually invisible," testified John Caile of the gun-rights group Concealed Carry Reform Now. "The law wasn't broke, but we still have to fix it anyway."
That's because last August, Ramsey County District Judge John Finley struck down the law, returning the state to the old rules for permit issuance, although all current permits remain in force.
On April 12, the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld Finley's ruling that the law was unconstitutionally enacted as part of a bill that embraced more than one subject. That had happened as part of legislative maneuvering to get a vote in the Senate, where DFL majority leaders had been blocking it.
A further appeal to the state Supreme Court by Attorney General Mike Hatch is pending.
Party-line vote
After two hours of discussion Wednesday, the House Civil Law Committee approved Howes' bill and sent it to the Rules Committee, which has the power to override deadlines that would normally prevent its advance. The vote of 7 to 5 followed party lines, with all Republicans in favor and all DFLers opposed.
The only substantive change in the bill involves the rights of property owners to order pistol-packers off their premises. Under the 2003 law, gun-shy proprietors had to post signs banning firearms and ask people carrying them to leave. With the new language, either a sign or a verbal request would suffice.
There's no change in the penalty for disobeying a sign or a request: a petty misdemeanor with a maximum fine of $25.
In addition, the bill would continue to bar property owners from banning guns in their parking lots and rental property, a provision that has also been challenged in court and was sharply criticized Wednesday by a Lutheran pastor and former Gov. Arne Carlson.
In a letter read to the committee, Carlson said the bill would "significantly expand the right of trespass with a concealed weapon. This seizing of power by the state is completely contrary to traditional conservative values."
Gun-control advocates argued that broader handgun permitting has not brought the crime-rate reductions predicted by proponents and has instead resulted in tragedies such as an accidental shooting by a permit holder that paralyzed a child.
"We are sending a dangerous message to our kids that guns are the way to solve our problems," said Kate Havelin, president of the Twin Cities Million Mom March chapter.
A better bill?
Local government and law enforcement officials testified in favor of more changes -- allowing municipal buildings and parks to be off-limits to guns, giving off-duty police officers armed access anywhere, lifting a $100 limit on fees that sheriffs may charge for a five-year permit -- but Howes resisted such amendments, and none was offered in the committee.
Slawik, however, said 10 to 20 amendments will be proposed when the bill reaches the House floor as early as next week.
Senate Majority Leader Johnson, who voted against the law in 2003 but said he might support it this time, appointed a special panel of six DFL senators -- three from the Twin Cities, three from outstate -- to study possible changes that could be adopted in an eventual hearing before the Crime Prevention and Public Safety Committee.
Regardless of the committee's vote, Johnson said, "the understanding in our caucus is that the bill would return to the floor. ... It will not be buried."
Conrad deFiebre is at [EMAIL PROTECTED].
http://www.startribune.com/stories/587/5372837.html
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