‘Hold the vote’ on the Senate gun control bill is what citizens demanded of the Minnesota House. DFL State Rep. Emma Greenman from Minneapolis told a crowd of protesters, “we’ll use all the power we have to take action.”
To chants of ‘keep your word’ the crowd said Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth must keep her word to the Annunciation School parents that she would not block a bill. Minister Faith Allen with Moms Demand Action asked following the school shootings this past summer at Annunciation School, “If Annunciation doesn’t catch your attention, how many lives until enough is enough?”
Republican Floor Leader Harry Niska said, “We need bipartisan support to move forward on things,” on his live appearance on Almanac at the Capitol. Demuth later added, “Gun bills failed on party line vote in committee…we’ve taken those votes.”
Chad Kuyper from Moms Demand Action chided, “Six months from now the legislature will be on the ballot and we will remember who fought and who hid. ” The groups pushing for a violence prevention vote delivered 8,000 petitions onto the House floor and up to the Speaker’s desk and promised that, “this is the issue that will rule the session”
We saw supporters by the dozens stream into the governor’s reception room where the state’s chief executive extended his support in his last legislative session. Gov. Tim Walz said “Makes me wonder why not vote, if it comes to the House floor it will pass”
An attempt to bring a gun control bill up with urgency could not get the supermajority necessary, so Democrats began an overnight sit-in. This is not the first time for protests and sit-ins on this issue, almost a decade ago then Rep. Maye Quade, now senator, staged a sit-in to urge a vote on gun control.
The session-ending global deal cuts license tab fees which Senate Republicans wanted, includes a more than a billion-dollar bonding bill and a rescue plan for the state’s safety net hospital HCMC. The agreement also funds IT modernization and memorials for slain speaker Melissa Hortman. And the governor signed a bipartisan bill to create an office of inspector general to stop fraud in state government.
All four top legislative leaders will continue their tradition of a live group appearance live on Almanac Friday night.
