Minnesota Senate clears sweeping assault weapons bill in wake of Annunciation shooting
10h 16m ago by lemmy.world/u/TheTimeKnife in news from www.startribune.com
The Minnesota state Senate has approved a sweeping violence prevention bill taken up after a violent year that saw the shooting deaths of two Minneapolis schoolchildren and the assassination of House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband.
The wide-ranging bill includes a ban on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, expanded requirements for the safe storage of firearms, and more funding for school security and mental health care.
“Today is really, really historic,” said Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, a long-time advocate of gun control legislation at the Capitol. “It stands on the work of the legislators that came before us.”
The bill cleared the Democrat-controlled Senate by a single vote, 34 to 33, with all Democrats voting for the bill and all Republicans voting against. It also marks a rare bright spot for DFL Gov. Tim Walz, who threw his energy into violence prevention efforts after the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in August, only to see Republicans rebuff him and his influence wane in his administration’s final year.
Republicans will also almost certainly block the measure’s most controversial provisions in the tied House, where they control the speaker’s gavel. Even attempts to address less contentious policy points, like school security and mental health care, have stalled in the House.
“I’m very excited today that there’s some really good work being done around gun safety,” Walz told reporters this morning before the vote. “But I’m also a realist.”
A spokeswoman for GOP House Speaker Lisa Demuth did not immediately provide comment on the Senate bill’s passage. Demuth has previously expressed skepticism about the gun control measures pushed by Democrats.
“This is not going to bring these kids back and that’s all these families want,” she told the Minnesota Star Tribune last month.
This is not going to bring these kids back and that’s all these families want
But it will save kids who haven't died yet — and that's all those families want, they just don't know it yet.
It won't do anything when you can just drive to the next state an buy your bazooka.
That's only true until it isn't. Plus, it's added friction. Yeah they still can, but will one person rethink things on their long drive? What about when it gets longer because the next state does something?
It's like vaccination. Inject one person and you've saved one person. Inject 80% of people and you've saved nearly everyone.
Fixing guns in this country will be the work of decades. And we should've started decades ago, but having failed in that, second best is starting now.
How long before the Supreme Court rules this unconstitutional? I fucking hate this country and it's love for guns.
The Democrats are trying to disarm us as the Republicans build their neo-fascist state.
We're being screwed from both sides.
Can someone help me understand once and for all what an "assault style" weapon is? What makes an assault style weapon more deadly than a non assault style weapon?
Nothing. Assault style is nebulous and changes by state. Pistol grip on a rifle is the most common defining to-be banned feature I'd wager. Some bans also target stocks with multiple lengths, threaded barrels, or even 'barrel shrouds' sometimes defined as almost anything touching the barrel of the rifle that allows you to hold it by circumventing the heat of the barrel. Tldr mostly they're banning ergonomics.
What makes an assault style weapon more deadly than a non assault style weapon?
Round exits the barrel on an AR-15 at over 3000 feet per second. It contains an enormous amount of energy that obliterates the human body.
What rounds? What grain? There's a . 223 or a classic .308 and they can be hot or not.
You can simply say a bullet is dangerous without sounding ignorant or attempting to sound more educated than you are on firearms.
I linked an article with people who know what they’re talking about. I never pretended to be educated on firearms.
Not true, a bolt action chambered in the same caliber with the same barrel length will be exactly the same muzzle velocity. Muzzle energy is also a more telling stat than velocity. In terms of muzzle energy 5.56 is just an intermediate cartridge, in fact in some states it's actually illegal to hunt deer or larger game with 5.56 because without good shot placement it doesn't kill them humanely enough. Often times bolt actions are also chambered in larger calibers like .308 which are better for large game and also penetrates body armor until you get to the really high-level armor plates. Nothing about the features being banned determines muzzle velocity or energy.
Okay, you tell me: why is a gun clearly designed for killing people so damn good at killing people?
Because its still a rifle round, but the features being banned make no difference in the lethality of the bullet. The article you linked compared the AR to only handguns but no other rifles. Any semi auto 5.56 is as deadly as an AR (if it's chambered in the same caliber) weather it has the banned features or not.
And it exits the barrel of an AR15 at the same speed as a .270, or a .243 winchester, or a. 30-06 Springfield, all of which are boring old brown hunting rifles that don't have the scary looking ergonomic attachments.
A 220 Swift from 1935 has a muzzle velocity of 4000fps, even faster than the scary AR!
It's easier to just admit you don't know anything about guns, and neither do the folks writing this legislation.