During a forum for Republican candidates for governor in Mankato in early November, state Sen. Paul Gazelka said he brings a gun to the Minnesota Capitol in St. Paul.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Tom Olmscheid[/image_credit][image_caption]Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka[/image_caption]
Some around the Legislature appeared surprised that Gazelka carries a weapon at the Capitol, and his comments also renewed a debate over the safety and necessity of firearms — at least those not held by law enforcement — at the Legislature.
Gazelka is not the only lawmaker carrying a gun. The practice does not appear to be widespread, but legislative officials estimate at least a handful of other elected officials bring firearms to the Capitol.
And while lawmakers and the general public once had to notify the state Department of Public Safety when they had a gun at the Capitol, the Legislature got rid of that requirement several years ago. Today, anyone with a state permit to carry can have a handgun on the Capitol complex, said Lt. Gordon Shank, a spokesman for the Minnesota State Patrol. Shank said there is no requirement that the gun be concealed when carried.
There is one exception: guns aren’t allowed in the judicial building, Shank said.
But lawmakers and the general public can bring pistols elsewhere on Capitol grounds. Sven Lindquist, the Senate’s Sergeant at Arms, said legislators can have guns on the Senate floor. Lawmakers could adopt a rule to block carrying in the chamber, but said he wouldn’t recommend it currently because it would be logistically difficult to check for guns and store them if people have them. The Senate, at this point, “is not in a position to take those steps,” Lindquist said.
In 2015, legislators modified state law to eliminate a requirement that people with permits to carry guns must notify the state’s Public Safety commissioner when they have a sidearm at the Capitol. The new law says the permit itself “constitutes notification of the commissioner of public safety.”
Republicans controlled the House at the time, and Democrats controlled the Senate, though the Senate majority leader was Sen. Tom Bakk, who was a DFLer but now is an independent. Mark Dayton was governor.
[image_caption]State Rep. Peggy Bennett[/image_caption]
Bennett, a retired teacher, said she first got a firearm permit in 2012 but didn’t conceal and carry the gun around Albert Lea. After getting elected, she started carrying the handgun at the Legislature.
Bennett said there are a few reasons why she does so. “I feel like as a woman, especially in situations where you get mugged or you could have some angry people coming at you or whatever, it is a great equalizer,” Bennett said.
Bennett said she views the gun as a “good backup” in an increasingly volatile political climate, and even though she thinks Capitol security does a “wonderful job,” she said “they can’t be everywhere at all times.”
Public figures can be targets, Bennett said, but she also said she wants the gun as protection while walking around outside the Capitol complex, such as walking to her car or the light rail station.
Bennett said she has never taken her gun out at the Capitol. She does bring it with her around the complex, including to the House floor, because she said it wouldn’t be responsible to leave it in her office where someone else could access it. “It gives me more peace of mind that I’m able to protect myself if I need to,” Bennett said.
A spokesman for Minnesota House Democrats said he wasn’t aware of any DFL representatives who carry a gun at the Capitol.
[image_caption]State Rep. Mike Sundin[/image_caption]
“I had people shouting outside my house,” he said. “I just thought prudent I could deflect some problems should they arise in my home.”
Still, Sundin said he doesn’t think lawmakers need to carry in St. Paul. “As far as firearms in the Capitol, in the complex itself, I think it’s turned into more of a stunt by people who voice their support for the Second Amendment preservation rather than actual protection,” Sundin said. “We have skilled professionals with firearms on the grounds, and they are trained and I am fully confident of their capabilities as far as protecting us from any unforeseen dangers.”
Sundin said he thought it was “embarrassing” any legislative leader would bring this up, though he said lawmakers shouldn’t consider relaxing or tightening gun rules at the Capitol because they should be talking about other issues like how to handle a state budget surplus.
House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler, a Golden Valley Democrat who serves on an advisory committee dedicated to Capitol safety, said he would prefer to limit guns at the Capitol but said a law change would need support in the Republican-led Senate so he and other Democrats haven’t seriously pursued it. Winkler also noted that the Capitol doesn’t have metal detectors, which is “unusual for major public buildings.”
Winkler said he believed the requirement to notify DPS when carrying a gun was not being followed and the state had no means of enforcing it and said the Legislature has never had a problem with lawmakers or others having guns at the Capitol. Still, he said there’s “no reason to assume that we never will, especially with the far right increasingly adopting violent rhetoric.”
[image_caption]State Rep. Ryan Winkler[/image_caption]
For the last year, lawmakers and state officials have debated permanent security measures at the Capitol.
In the Senate, a DFL spokesman said no Democratic senators carry at the Capitol. A Senate Republican spokeswoman said she didn’t have an estimate of how many other GOPers besides Gazelka have guns at the Capitol. None in the current caucus leadership wanted to say whether they had them, she said, but also said Gazelka was not alone in having firearms. Some also have decorative firearms in offices, but the guns are disabled.
For his part, Gazelka pointed to a specific incident as at least one reason he carries a gun. On June 19, 2020, soon after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis officer Derek Chauvin, a group of protesters forced their way into the Minnesota Senate building while promoting new police reforms. They were removed by the Minnesota State Patrol.
“The fact is they broke into the Senate building, Black Lives Matter, during the riot,” Gazelka said at the governor’s forum in Mankato. “I felt more comfortable with the fact that I and a number of folks carried.”
What could possibly go wrong?
Exactly. Why have we allowed our public discourse to be dumbed down and gunned up? Freedom to carry guns is really all about freedom to intimidate. And the Republicans are both living in fear of their Trumpist gun lovers, and loving them for the intimidation that they bring to civil discourse. The gun thing is all about intimidation. This bullsh*t is coming to you at your polling place in 2022. The Republicans are embracing this hostile and aggressive tactic. If something bad happens, then watch Mr. Gazelka run to distance himself from the results. Of course. Republicans are not responsible for anything that their crazy troops do.
Self-reliance being a conservative principle, republicans provide the means to protect themselves. Democrats, being dependent on the state for all things big and small, expect the government to protect them.
Yes, I prefer to depend on police when inside a public building with security. Even in the Old West we have been led to believe that people turned their guns, uh Knesset they were itching for a fight.
I am trying to imagine members of Congress with guns inside the US Capitol on January 6. For Republicans who supported Trump’s denial of his defeat and attempt to be incite a coup to become an unelected dictator, who would they have chosen for targets and how many more would have died?
When walking to a parking lot, if a woman has a permit and firearms training, she has the right to defend herself. Angry men looking for trouble – not so much.
Simplistic nonsense.
Another absurd comment. REPS are childish, immature, afraid of EVERYTHING apparently, and breaking rules and laws continuously. They act like it’s the wild, wild west and the 1800s. Regression and destruction of our way of life, of our democracy, is the goal. They care not at all about ‘the people’. They have no business being in elected positions of power & control. They ignore the oaths they took when they were sworn in.
Republicans rely on creating a culture of fear and victimhood and pander to old people and ignorant nutjobs of various stripes. Their rhetoric makes their disciples so afraid, they need to carry weapons all the time (but won’t wear a mask when there is an actual threat to health and safety killing thousands of people?).
It’s their entire platform these days. What are they supposed to use to win elections? Their innovative ideas?
I don’t think it’s self reliant conservatives but a political bragging point to appeal to gun toting red necks. It’s scary knowing that some people that have permits to carry seem to be looking for a chance to use them. I am a gun owner of sporting guns and feel no need to carry, but then of course I live in a smaller community up state.
That’s what it’s there for.
It does a better job than vigilantes.
Republicans have created the ‘volatile’ political atmosphere with their fawning over the NRA and Trump and his racist militant backer groups. You got what you asked for, now live with it.
People legally carrying a gun hasn’t ever been a problem.
Yeah, tell that to Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, and the 60 murdered folks in Vegas, word is Mr. Paddock (the shooter) had over 40 legally purchased and owned fire arms!
As the Republican legislators quoted in Walker’s piece demonstrate, Frank Herbert’s line in “Dune” is spot-on: “…fear is the mind-killer…” Unless your occupation requires it (and in civilian society, not many do), carrying a sidearm is primarily an attempt to intimidate. Alas, in recent years, and in place of rational policies which might benefit the majority of the population, intimidation is a growing portion of the Republican playbook.
I am sure it’s because people in the Capitol are indifferent to the safety and well being of those who visit to the building.
I’m more worried about recidivist criminals carrying anywhere.
Why? Has Emmer been around the state capitol lately?
That female Republican legislator from Albert Lea who is so afraid to go to her car without a gun at the Capitol should just go home to Albert Lea. She’s afraid of the city, any city, any urban location that’s full of . . . GASP! non-white people! They’re all out to get her!
She’s more of a danger to others around her than anyone is to her, poor sad thing. I’d not want to see that fearful woman startled, while she’s armed and ready to shoot somebody!
These Republicans carrying guns are pitiful. i feel sorry for them, so weak and helpless and distrustful. Especially the insecure men, of course. They carry guns–meaning, they are willing to kill someone (only reason to carry a firearm)–and then wonder why there’s an atmosphere of menace at the Capitol that all citizens feel.
So Mr. Gazelka is afraid to walk across a police patrolled lit parking lot at the state capital, and he wants us to vote for him as the next fearless leader of the state? There has got to be a joke in there someplace!
I’ve got a thousand dollars that says not one of those idiot Republican clowns highlighted in the article have ever even fired their guns. But think about it, look at those dimwits, Gazelka and that women, I’m sure they have cat like reflexes which would render any potential threat neutralized; except in reality, where they would lose any fight they might find themselves in. The myth of the good guy with a gun is such a joke. There has never been an example in this country, ever, where a good guy with a gun stopped any shooting. Not. A. Single. One. There are plenty of examples of good guys without guns stopping a mass shooting, and in doing so they gave their lives, bravery no Republican could ever muster.
Simple Google search proves you wrong
Then prove it.
Well, you’d better re-think that. As part of the requirements for a state permit to carry, there’s a live fire exercise (40 rounds) that has to be observed by a certified firearms instructor. All those folks not only have fired their weapon but they’re proven their competency to a state-approved instructor. Do you do PayPal?
What the Supreme Court has in mind is for everyone to pack heat, basically a Kenosha plus. Since everyone will be self defending against everyone else, no one will be guilty of anything.
Because of the 2nd Amendment, everyone CAN pack heat. If the democrats were pro-gun they’d make it mandatory.
Because of the wilful misinterpretation of the Second Amendment by 5 “conservative” male activists masquerading as “justices”, everyone can “pack heat” at home. (The “right” to carry high-powered weaponry outside the home hasn’t been manufactured-yet).
Just had to fix it for you!
An interesting story about the level of gun lunacy at the Capitol, but it mostly is just another nauseating display of “conservative” performance art, especially by the Repub currently running for governor.
At least when they’re ab active member of the National Guard (the “well-regulated militia” stated in the Second Amendment.)
The problem with constitutional originalism is that it turns over policy decisions to the founding fathers, none of whom were elected and none of whom will run for elective office in the future.
Conservatives are so funny, they really crack me up. For over a year we were admonished not to “live in fear,” stuck in our basements with our masks on. But now, oh heavens! I can’t possibly step outside my front door without my high powered rifle and a couple of Glocks! I live in fear of absolutely EVERYONE.
If Gazelka were capable of adding two plus two and coming out someplace between three and five, he’d know that carrying a firearm increases the chances that he will be shot.
For those of you that care about the true picture.
https://www.quora.com/Is-it-true-that-concealed-carry-permit-holders-commit-less-than-one-third-of-one-percent-of-crimes-with-firearms
I’d be interested to know how many actual incidents have occurred involving Minnesota legislators where their guns were used to protect themselves. When the legislators were interviewed for this story, their comments seemed to indicate that they believed that AT ANY MOMENT they would be called upon to protect themselves from assault or death at the hands of constituents, and that is why they carried personal firearms. What do the facts show?