A key vote in the Minnesota House later today on a public safety budget bill. We asked Democratic House Speaker Melissa Hortman and Majority Leader Ryan Winkler about the chances of controversial gun measures — background checks and a “red flag” law — staying in the bill: “100 percent,” they said.
But the Reverend Nancy Nord Bence with the anti-gun-violence group Protect Minnesota is not so sure. “I don’t think anything, any vote, is ever a foregone conclusion,” she says. “I’m pretty new at this but I’m not that naive. We have to keep working and keep working ’til it’s done.”
There’s virtually no chance of the gun measures passing the Republican-controlled Minnesota Senate — but if the House approves them, the issue could be part of end-of-session budget negotiations.