Bakk: ‘I Support the Senate Considering Gun Safety Measures’

I wanted to make sure you saw Minnesota Senate Minority Leader Tim Bakk’s Op-Ed in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, in which Bakk declared his support for Senate hearings on gun safety measures.

Bakk writes:

“The bills getting the most coverage in the press this year are the gun safety bills, particularly extreme-risk protection orders and expanding background checks. I’m no stranger to the gun debate — I was endorsed by the NRA in a DFL primary among 11 other candidates the first time I ran for the House. I broke with the NRA on the “castle doctrine” bill in 2011. I’ve supported conceal-and-carry legislation. I voted for or against those bills after hearing from my constituents and advocates and balancing their insights with my conscience and my own life experience.

I support the Senate considering gun safety measures. Mandatory lost or stolen weapon reporting and the Taylor Hayden Gun Violence Prevention Act both make sense to me. There’s compromise to be made between gun owners and gun safety advocates on gun-related bills, but we can’t get there if both sides aren’t even at the same table.”

Polling conducted in 2018 by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune found that 9 in 10 Minnesotans support criminal background checks on all gun sales. Additional polling last year found 87 percent of Minnesotans support the concept of Red Flag laws.

More information about Extreme Risk Protection Order legislation in Minnesota is available here, and information about background checks is available here.

In February, Everytown for Gun Safety released a report showing there were as many as 28,818 ads posted on Armlist.com last year in Minnesota alone for which no background check was required.