Broad New Minnesota Gun Laws Allowing Confiscation Are in Effect

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According to a CBS News report, Minnesota has passed a new broad set of red flag gun laws that have gone into effect. It gives courts the power to remove guns from people who could be arrested themselves or others.

It gives a judge temporary control of their Second Amendment rights.

”It would have to have evidence that this person is a risk to themselves or others, compelling evidence, said Kevin Vick, the president of Stock and Barrel Gun Club. “Within 24 hours, those firearms can be seized with a warrant.”

The request to request that someone lose their access to guns can only come from a family or household member, a chief law-enforcement officer, or a city or county attorney.

A judge can order two types of restrictions. Long-term orders last up to a year and only come after a hearing in which the person can dispute that they’re at risk. An emergency order, the other type, goes into effect immediately without a hearing and lasts for two weeks.

Mr. Vick‘s concern is that there will be tension between public safety and individual rights, and that’s where the argument comes in.

Gun rights advocates opposed the measures.

“The impact of these laws will only be felt by peaceable owners, who are being imposed with unreasonable barriers to the free exercise of a constitutionally protected right,” said Rob Doar, senior vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.

According to MP News, the broader public safety law will also:
  • Boost funding for Minnesota courts to improve courtroom technology and raise salaries of judicial branch workers and legal aid programs.
  • Expand youth intervention and restorative programs with the aim of changing the direction of young people before they commit more serious crimes.
  • Rework the pardons process so decisions of the three-person panel — the governor, attorney general and Supreme Court chief justice — won’t have to be unanimous. The governor will have to be part of any vote where a pardon is awarded.
  • Allow prison inmates to shave time off their incarceration by participating in rehabilitative, substance abuse or educational programs while behind bars. The credits couldn’t cut their prison time to less than half but it could mean inmates serve less than the standard two-thirds of a sentence in custody before supervised release is permitted.
  • Include gender identity, gender expression or perception of those in the definition of bias-motivated assault when the crime is believed to be driven by those factors.
  • Limit the use of no-knock search warrants by police and changing the protocol for how they will be conducted should a judge issue one.
  • Ensure that families of people killed by police get access within five days to body camera footage, with the requirement that it be released to the general public within two weeks.
  • Fund police recruitment, given a shortage of licensed officers.
  • The law will also create the first in the nation Office of Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls. It will be similar to the state’s Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

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