Star-Tribune: ‘Will gun policy swing Minnesota’s 2020 elections?’

In a column Sunday, Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter Stephen Montemayor wrote that the results of this month’s Virginia election – in which gun safety played a key role – could offer a preview of Minnesota’s elections next year.

Highlighting the Minnesota House candidacy of Erin Preese, a volunteer with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Montemayor wrote that her “reason for running for office tells a story about our times.” Gun safety could be a key issue in races across Minnesota and elsewhere, he wrote:

Nationally, there’s growing evidence that gun policy could loom large in state and federal races in 2020. This month’s Democratic takeover of the Virginia General Assembly — for the first time in a quarter-century — put lawmakers and activists on notice. Just before the Virginia election, a Washington Post-Schar School poll found that three in four voters rated gun laws as “very important” in casting their ballots. Big majorities also backed expanding criminal background checks for gun sales and creating a “red flag” law that would let police take firearms from those ruled by a judge to be a danger to themselves or others — two leading DFL priorities in Minnesota.

Although the Minnesota House passed background checks and red flag policies this year, the Minnesota Senate did not. 

In October, Minneapolis Star Tribune polling showed for the second straight year that more than four in five Minnesotans support requiring background checks on all gun sales.

In an average year, 422 people die by guns in Minnesota, 78 percent of these deaths are by suicide and 18 percent are by homicide. Guns are the leading cause of death among children and teens in Minnesota—an average of 37 children and teens die by guns every year in the state. For more information on gun violence in Minnesota and other states visit: everytownresearch.org/everystat.