Dear list, The Kingfield Neighborhood Association is now on record opposing the proposed "must issue" gun bill (basically, everybody gets to carry a concealed gun) that is now before the state legislature. The Minneapolis Business Council testified against it yesterday, saying the expense to businesses would be tremendous. Liability insurance for major open-air events, like Aquatennial and the Holidazzle parade, may make these wonderful activities a thing of the past.
Here is what I wrote about yesterday's hearing. The first Minnesota Senate committee hearing of the proposed “must issue” gun bill was enough to turn anyone’s hair gray. Up close for the first time, I could see what this bill is really about. It’ s not about crime. It’s not about safety. It’s about the convenience of people like Mr. Joe DeSua of Apple Valley, who doesn’t feel comfortable out in public without his handgun – though he did leave his house to testify for this bill. He said he doesn’t have a permit to carry his gun because he couldn’t show the Apple Valley police chief that he had a hazard, which is a requirement of the current “may issue” law. (That’s the pesky rule that allows local police chiefs to protect us by denying some people permission to pack heat wherever they go.) Another witness testifying for the bill said he wasn’t satisfied that a relative of his was rescued by unarmed bystanders from a would-be carjacker in a grocery store parking lot. It would have been better if they had been armed, he said. Bullets whizzing around in a crowded parking lot would be an improvement? Clearly, these people aren’t concerned about anybody’s safety. They just want to kick butt. And these are the people who will be first in line to get their gun permits, believe me. Feel safer? Mr. DeSua will feel safer, though he won’t be. As self-defense experts will tell you, carrying a gun increases your chances of being shot with it. Eight percent of the police officers who died last year were shot with their own guns, we learned from testimony yesterday. But facts don’t enter into this at all. How could facts matter to these people, who can hear every major police, education, business, and medical organization in the state implore them not to pass this bill, and ignore them? Sen. Kleis, who couldn’t wait to approve the bill, had just heard that most domestic abusers don’t have criminal records, so they could be armed as soon as this bill becomes law. The legitimate, completely rational terror of domestic abuse victims didn’t sway him at all. The data show that states with liberal gun-carrying laws have more gun deaths. Last year in Minnesota, 350 people were killed by guns, including 45 children. This bill would mean more gun deaths – mostly suicides and accidents. But these events matter to the sponsors so little that the bill doesn’t even allow police to track their connection with gun permits. At the hearing, Sen. Pat Pariseau got huffy at police witnesses for saying she didn’t listen to them in drafting a bill that would ultimately put more police in caskets. “We addressed all 11 of their points,” she fumed. But she did stand her ground in refusing to raise the permit fee above $40, she said. Never mind that treating a gunshot victim costs $400,000 – if he dies. When it comes to the right of the average citizen to kick butt, money is no object. This bill appropriates $1 million to create a new corps of vigilantes, while we cut police departments. Call your legislator immediately. “Must issue” could be voted on within a few days. If your representative won’t stand up to the National Rifle Association, or was installed by the NRA, tell him you’ll vote him out. Then do it. Heather Martens Kingfield TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Send all posts in plain-text format. 2. Cut as much of the post you're responding to as possible. ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
