Minnesota Dems Block 2A Groups From Testifying on Gun Control Bills

The Minnesota Senate Judiciary and Public Safety committee is meeting today, and multiple gun control bills are on its agenda. But while gun control groups will be able to lend their vocal support to legislation banning many semi-automatic firearms and ammunition magazines, establishing more “gun-free zones,” and other infringements on our right to keep and bear arms, pro-Second Amendment groups are being denied an opportunity to speak. 

Our partners at @NSSF and @NRA are also not being allowed to testify against the gun ban bills.

There are no gun rights groups testifying against the gun bans because the Senate has decided the “schedule is full” https://t.co/EEVIednK1B

— MN Gun Owners Caucus (@mnguncaucus) March 13, 2026

As MN Gun Owners Caucus chair Bryan Strawser shared, committee staff informed the Caucus that they would only be allowed to testify on two of the bills that are on the agenda… and the committee decided for the Caucus what bills those would be. 

Not the gun and magazine bans. Not the preemption repeal, or anything having to do with “gun-free zones.” Instead, the Caucus gets to share its opinion on funding a “gun violence prevention” program at Hamline University as well as a proposal to make some permit-to-carry data public. 

While those bills are worth talking about (and opposing), it’s utterly ridiculous that the committee is preventing 2A groups from offering oral testimony on the top priority for Gov. Tim Walz and the Democrat-Farmer-Labor caucus this session: a ban on so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines. 

The groups were able to submit written testimony, but that obviously doesn’t have the impact of oral testimony. Local TV news across Minnesota will be covering the hearing, but viewers won’t get to see or hear any soundbites featuring representatives from the Caucus, NSSF, or NRA, at least on the bills that are likely going to get the most attention. 

The MN Gun Owners Caucus has posted its written testimony online, and you can see, it wouldn’t have taken Strawser long to make his statements. Here’s his entire testimony on the gun and magazine ban, for instance. 

Chairs and Members of the Committee:

On behalf of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus—the state’s largest grassroots Second Amendment organization representing thousands of law-abiding firearm owners across Minnesota—we respectfully submit this letter in strong opposition to SF 3655. 

SF 3655 does not merely regulate firearms. It bans some of the most commonly owned firearms and magazines in the United States and converts peaceful Minnesotans into felons for possession of mainstream, lawfully owned property. SF 3655 prohibits the future sale and transfer of widely owned semiautomatic rifles based largely on cosmetic features and bans magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds.These magazines are factory standard for many of the most popular handguns and rifles sold today.

Millions of Americans—and hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans—lawfully own firearms such as the AR-15 platform and standard-capacity magazines. These are not unusual or exotic weapons. They are among the most common firearms and components owned in the country. Under SF 3655, ordinary possession becomes a felony offense. 

The constitutional framework governing this issue is clear. These bans, if passed into law, cannot stand. 

Litigation Will Follow

The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus has successfully challenged unconstitutional firearm restrictions before, including Worth v. Jacobson, where the Eighth Circuit struck down Minnesota’s age-based carry restriction under the Supreme Court’s Bruen framework. If SF 3655 is enacted, litigation will follow promptly. Given the clarity of Supreme Court precedent, Minnesota taxpayers will bear the cost of defending a law that directly conflicts with binding constitutional authority.

Conclusion 

SF 3655 bans arms and components in common use, criminalizes ordinary possession, and conflicts directly with binding Supreme Court precedent. For these reasons, we respectfully urge you to vote NO on SF 3655.

Now, some individuals have been allowed to testify in opposition to the gun and magazine ban bill, and many of them have done an excellent job of dismantling the arguments in favor of the bans. I applaud and thank them for taking the time to show up at the statehouse and share their views. I just wish that the organizations many of these folks belong to had the opportunity to speak as well. 

The numbers tell the story at the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing.

On their massive gun + mag ban bill:
32 minutes for gun control supporters.
6 minutes for opponents.

Chair Latz said the committee prioritized individuals over organizations.

Yet anti-gun organizations…

— MN Gun Owners Caucus (@mnguncaucus) March 13, 2026

SF 3655 would ban the manufacture, sale, and transfer of commonly-owned firearms, and only those gun owners who obtain a “certificate of ownership” from the state police would be allowed to maintain possession of their “assault weapons” and magazines that can hold more than ten rounds. In order to get that certificate, which is simply gun registration by another name, those gun owners would have to agree to allow law enforcement to “to inspect the storage of the device to ensure compliance.” That means police could come into their homes, at any time and and without a warrant, to poke around and check if all guns and magazines are stored in compliance with yet-to-be-written regulations by the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. 

Bans on commonly-owned arms are already unconstitutional, but SF 3655 is doubly so by conditioning the exercise of one right on giving up another. We have the right to keep and bear arms and the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and it’s both illegal and immoral to make citizens choose between the two. 

It’s unclear whether SF 3655 or any other gun control legislation can pass out of the state Senate, where Democrats have a one-seat advantage. And so far, every gun control bill heard by House committees have failed to advance to the floor, where Democrats and Republicans hold an equal number of seats. But SF 3655 did pass out of today’s committee hearing on a 6-3 party line vote, and now moves to the Senate Finance committee. 

I’m hopeful that all of these bills can be defeated this year, but Democrats are pulling out all the stops to get their anti-2A legislation to Gov. Tim Walz… including silencing the voices of Second Amendment groups in opposition to their gun ban agenda. 

Editor’s Note: Anti-gun politicians continue to lie about gun owners and the Second Amendment. 

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