Minnesota Democratic lawmakers held an overnight sit-in to demand a vote on a gun violence prevention bill after the Republican speaker delayed it. The bill follows tragic incidents, including a school shooting that killed two students last August.
Key points
Democratic lawmakers staged a sit-in in Minnesota's house chamber
The sit-in was in response to a delayed vote on a gun violence prevention bill
The Minnesota Senate has already passed the bill
The push for new laws follows a school shooting that killed two students
Families of shooting victims are advocating for legislative changes
Mentioned in this story
Minnesota House of RepresentativesSamantha Sencer-MuraLisa DemuthMinnesotaMinneapolis
Democratic state representatives in Minnesota staged an overnight sit-in in their house chamber on Thursday after the Republican speaker failed to put a gun violence prevention bill up for a vote.
Samantha Sencer-Mura, a Democratic representative from Minneapolis, first announced the plan on Wednesday from the floor of the state’s house of representatives, giving speaker Lisa Demuth, a candidate for governor, 24 hours to give the bill a vote before the sit-in would start.
The Minnesota senate, controlled by Democrats, narrowly passed the gun violence prevention omnibus earlier this month. The house, where there is a 67-67 vote tie and a Republican speaker in charge, has so far not taken up the bill.
The push for new gun laws came after a school shooting at Annunciation Catholic church last August, where two students were killed and others injured during a school-wide mass. Minnesota also saw the killings of state lawmaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and the shootings of state lawmaker John Hoffman and his wife, last summer.
The parents of Harper Moyski, a 10-year-old killed in the Annunciation shooting, and other Annunciation students and families have advocated for changes to state laws to prevent gun violence. Fletcher Merkel, 8, was also killed in the shooting.
The bill includes bans on semi-automatic military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines, regulations on safe storage of firearms, a ghost-gun ban, modifications for risk protection orders, and provisions for schools to implement threat reporting systems, among other new policies.
Sencer-Mura had set a deadline of 5pm on Thursday. A procedural motion to bring the bill to a vote failed just before 9pm.
Q&A
What prompted the Minnesota lawmakers' sit-in over gun violence?
The sit-in was prompted by the Republican speaker's failure to bring a gun violence prevention bill to a vote.
What is the status of the gun violence prevention bill in Minnesota?
The Minnesota Senate has passed the bill, but the House has not voted on it due to a tie and Republican leadership.
What tragic events led to the push for new gun laws in Minnesota?
The push for new gun laws followed a school shooting at Annunciation Catholic church that killed two students and other violent incidents involving lawmakers.
Who are the families advocating for changes to gun laws in Minnesota?
Families of victims from the Annunciation shooting, including the parents of 10-year-old Harper Moyski, are advocating for changes to state laws to prevent gun violence.
See every story in News — including breaking news and analysis.
The lawmakers participating in the sit-in intended to stay in the chamber overnight, Sencer-Mura said. The local Fox affiliate reported that about 20 Democratic lawmakers intended to participate.
“What is speaker Lisa Demuth so afraid of? The very fact that she’s breaking her promise to Annunciation families to not block the bill from coming to the floor, tells me that she’s afraid it will pass,” Sencer-Mura said in a statement. “She’s afraid that her members are hearing their constituents, and are going to choose to be on the right side of history.
“This is a serious action to fight for serious solutions. Minnesotans deserve to be safe.”
Demuth’s office was contacted for comment.
Also on Thursday, proponents for the gun violence prevention bill delivered a petition by Everytown with more than 7,000 signatures that calls for passing the bill. Students and gun violence survivors spent the day at the state capitol meeting with lawmakers to advocate for the bill’s passage.
Over the past week, advocates for the bill have held actions to call attention to the bill, including a role-play by medical professionals simulating the aftermath of a gunshot injury, a “sing-in” and a pray-in.
The governor, Tim Walz, a Democrat, has pushed for the gun control measures.
Demuth, whose four children were on the school campus during a 2003 school shooting in Cold Spring, Minnesota, has said gun bans are not the right response to the Annunciation shooting.
“When I saw the governor come out and immediately go to gun bans, I thought ... oh, this is not the answer,” Demuth told the Minnesota Star Tribune in April. “This is not going to bring these kids back and that’s all these families want.”
Mike Moyski and Jackie Flavin, the parents of Harper Moyski, have talked with Demuth and many other lawmakers as they have pushed for new gun violence prevention laws. They told the Star Tribune that they asked Demuth whether she would allow a bill that banned assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to be put to a vote on the house floor, and that she had told them she would.
Demuth has previously said the bill needed to pass through committees before it could come to the floor. She told a Democratic lawmaker who asked on Wednesday when it would be moving that it was “being reviewed and it will move through at the appropriate time”.
Minnesota’s legislature is in the final days of its legislative session, with adjournment scheduled for 18 May.
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, a pro-gun lobby group, has opposed the bill. In a post on Twitter about the plan for a sit-in, the group said: “Apparently, constitutional rights are now subject to political performance art. No amount of floor theater changes the constitution.”
Erin Maye Quade, a state senator, held a 24-hour sit-in in 2018 when she was a state representative over a lack of action on gun control measures. It ultimately did not lead to new laws to control guns.
