Four state senators — two Democrats and two Republicans, all from the metro area — are introducing a bill that would require universal background checks on all gun sales, and clearly prohibit so-called “straw man” sales when someone buys a gun for somebody else. Chaska Senator Scott Jensen says, “If a bill like a universal background check can stop some things, we may never see it register on the radar screen, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t having an effect.” Co-sponsoring the bill are Plymouth Republican Paul Anderson and Democrats Susan Kent from Woodbury and Matt Little from Lakeville.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka says lawmakers can all agree on increasing school security and improving mental health resources, but “there is no time to waste on ideas that don’t work, or have no chance of passing the legislature this year.”