House panel OKs handgun permit law

04/27/2005

Associated Press
April 28, 2005

A slightly revised version of the state’s high-profile handgun permitting law picked up momentum in the Legislature on Wednesday, two weeks after the Appeals Court upheld a decision to strike it down on a technicality.

On a 7-5 vote, with all Republicans in favor and DFLers opposed, the House Civil Law Committee voted to reinstate the 2003 law, which created a uniform standard for obtaining permits to carry guns in public and led to more being issued in the state. The prior law gave sheriffs and police chiefs wider power to deny permits.

The gun bill is one stop away from a House floor vote, where even opponents concede it will easily pass. In a major development, Senate Majority Leader Dean Johnson said he intends to hold an up-or-down Senate vote on the bill if it clears the House and not bury it in committee.

“The issue perhaps is not as volatile as we thought last year,’’ said Johnson, DFL-Willmar, who opposed the bill in 2003. “I don’t think the problems have played out as predicted.’’

The rekindled debate comes two weeks after the Minnesota Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that threw out the 2003 law. Two courts agreed it was improperly enacted because it was tacked onto an unrelated bill to force a Senate vote. The state Attorney General’s Office intends to appeal the rulings to the state Supreme Court, possibly this week.

At the House hearing, supporters of the 2003 law said predictions of increased gun violence haven’t come to pass.

“With one or two tiny exceptions, permit holders have been virtually invisible,’’ said John Caile, a spokesman for the Concealed Carry Reform Now! group that pushed for the changes.

Critics also brought out familiar arguments against the broader availability of permits.

“All of us are at risk when it is so easy for so many people to have guns in so many public places,’’ said Kate Havelin, president of the Twin Cities Million Moms March chapter.

More than 25,000 people obtained permits under the new rules until the law was struck down, about twice the number of permits issued under the old law.

The 2003 law allowed people at least 21 years old with a clean record, no mental illness and proper training to get a permit. Before, sheriffs and police chiefs could deny permits to people who couldn’t show an occupational or personal safety need. But sheriffs in greater Minnesota tended to grant them more liberally.

The bill endorsed Wednesday makes only one change to the 2003 law. Business owners who had to post signs and issue verbal warnings forbidding guns on their property would only have to do one form of notification.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Larry Howes, R-Walker, said he would resist attempts to make other changes sought by supporters or detractors. In the Senate, Johnson said he couldn’t make any guarantees.

Olmsted County Sheriff Steve Borchardt, head of the state sheriff’s association, proposed a series of revisions the group says will make the law stronger and easier to carry out. Among his recommendations were to let officials ban guns at local government buildings and allow sheriffs to ask more questions about an applicant’s background.

But as a whole, Borchardt said the overturned law proved manageable. “The fact is the sky didn’t fall,’’ he said. “The fact is it worked pretty seamlessly.’’

One outspoken critic, Rep. Nora Slawik, DFL-Maplewood, said the bill’s passage is virtually certain.

“It’s clear it’s going to go through,’’ she said. “We know we can’t defeat it.’’