Minnesota Senate passes bill stiffening penalties on straw purchasing as prospects of remaining gun violence bills perish

The Minnesota Senate on Thursday voted to approve a bill that puts stiffer penalties on straw purchasing and prohibits the purchase and use of binary triggers.

The legislation, authored by DFL Sen. Heather Gustafson of Vadnais Heights, is one of three gun violence prevention bills that passed the House last week. The proposal passed on a 34-33 party-line vote with the support of all Democratic senators, but the two remaining gun bills — one on gun storage and another on reporting requirements — will not see the floor this session due to some division on those proposals within the DFL majority in the Senate.

Under current law, it is illegal to purchase a gun and give it to someone who isn’t allowed to possess one due to a felony or other reason, commonly known as “straw purchasing.” House File 2689 increases the penalty for straw purchasing from a gross misdemeanor to a felony, the maximum sentence to two years in prison and the maximum fine from $10,000 to $20,000. It also adds binary triggers – a device or modification that allows a single-shot firearm to fire a shot on the pull and the release of a trigger – to the list of “trigger activators” that are already illegal.

“This bill is one more step we can take together to keep our families and law enforcement safe from gun violence,” Gustafson said on the floor ahead of the vote. “Gun violence requires a mutli-faceted response, and this bill closes loopholes within the current law to hold offenders accountable.”

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The bill comes just a few months after Burnsville police officers Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, and firefighter-paramedic Adam Finseth, were shot and killed by 38-year-old Shannon Gooden following an hours-long standoff after the officers responded to the home for an alleged sexual assault. The guns used by Gooden, who lost his right to own a firearm after a felony conviction in 2008, were found to have been straw purchased by an ex-girlfriend. One of the guns was also found to have been equipped with a binary trigger.

Several Republican senators spoke out against the bill during the debate, claiming the legislation violates constitutional gun rights by requiring those who legally purchased the binary trigger accessory or guns already equipped with binary triggers to either hand the equipment over to law enforcement or pay to have the guns modified without compensation from the state. 

After the bill’s passage, Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson, R-East Grand Forks, released a statement echoing those concerns, saying the bill “turns law-abiding gun owners into criminals.”

Johnson also criticized Gustafson and the DFL majority for voting down several amendments offered by Republican senators during the floor debate.

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“There was bipartisan agreement available today, but Democrats choose to be partisan and political – and we all noticed they don’t have the votes to pass their full agenda,” Johnson said. “Rather than work with Republicans to find agreement, they continue to rely on a charged felon to cast the deciding vote,” referencing the arrest of DFL Sen. Nicole Mitchell late last month that nearly put the Senate DFL’s narrow majority in jeopardy.

Despite the passage of all three bills in the House last week with all DFL members on board, the two remaining gun violence prevention bills – a bill that would require gun owners to report to law enforcement within 48 hours if their gun goes missing, and another that would require gun owners to lock and unload a firearm to store it – stalled in the Senate.

At least one of the handful of Greater Minnesota DFL senators in political swing districts has already come out publicly against one of the bills. As the straw purchase bill was being debated on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Grant Hauschild of Hermantown posted on X that he would not vote for a gun storage bill if it’s brought to the floor. After the Senate adjourned on Thursday, Hauschild told reporters he will not be supporting the reporting requirements bill as well.

“The safe storage bill isn’t something that I think makes sense for Northern Minnesota. A lot of folks have guns that they have on their porches or in their homes,” he said. “We know how to handle our guns so I don’t have any reason to support that legislation at this time.”

DFL Senate Majority Leader Erin Murphy of St. Paul said the Senate will not take up the gun storage bill because they don’t have the votes without Hauschild’s support.

Before the straw purchase bill heads to Gov. Tim Walz’s desk, Gustafson said it will go to a conference committee due to slightly different language following additions that include clarifying language on the definition of binary triggers and an amendment from a Republican senator on Thursday to increase penalties further.

Editor’s note: Mohamed Ibrahim wrote this story for MinnPost.com. Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter.

This article first appeared on MinnPost and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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