Gun rights expert says Minnesota Dems tried to block her testimony on firearm bills to ‘avoid’ policy debate

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ASecond Amendmentexpert is accusing Minnesota Democrats of attempting to sideline policy advocates as they push for passage of a pair of gun control bills, arguing the lawmakers are leaning on emotional appeals instead of debating the measures’ real-world impact.

Displays of rifles at the gun show held Sunday at the Stillwater armory.(Jerry Holt/Star Tribune via Getty Images)

Democratic offices of the committee did not respond to multiple requests for comments since Friday.

The hearing included heavy moments during which parents of victims and victims themselves of last year’s shooting atAnnunciation Catholic Churchin Minneapolis testified in support of the bills.The shooter, who later died by suicide, killed two young children and injured more than two dozen others.

“Parents in our community don’t sleep all the way through the night anymore,” Jackie Flavin, who lost her 10-year-old daughter Harper in the shooting, testified.“Because when we send our children out into the world, we know that there are weapons out there capable of turning an ordinary morning into something unthinkable in seconds.”

In reaction to the mass shooting in Minneapolis at Annunciation Church, students rally at the capitol demanding state and federal lawmakers pass bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.(Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

The two bills, as they are currently written, are stalled in committee after receiving a 10-10 tie vote along party lines at the close of the contentious hearing.

Swearer said the committee rejected her written testimony, which included an analysis of multi-victim shootings in the state, because it contained hyperlinks, which was against committee rules.She accused Democrats on the committee of selectively enforcing that rule against her but not against others.

“I want to be clear, that was very emotional.It was difficult.These were grieving people, and understandably so, but that I think very clearly is what the Democrats wanted to focus on, the emotion of it,” Swearer said.“They did not want this to turn into a battle of actual experts on policy.”

The bills were part of a sweeping gun control package introduced by Democratic Gov.Tim Walzin response to the church shooting.

One of the bills would broadly ban future sales of many “semiautomatic military-style assault weapons” by redefining the firearms under state law and would impose new restrictions on current owners of such guns.The other would prohibit the manufacture, sale, transfer, and possession of large-capacity ammunition magazines, which the bill defines as those with more than ten rounds.

Swearer, who was invited to the hearing by the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, said the bills were unconstitutional.

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Minnesota Gov.Tim Walz speaks during a debate at the CBS Broadcast Center Oct.1, 2024, in New York City.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

“They’re problematic from start to finish,” she said, adding that the first bill was “one of the most restrictive gun bans I have ever seen in terms of the definition.”

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TheMinnesotaGun Owners Caucus’s director of governor relations, Anna Leamy, also testified against the bills during the hearing and noted that Swearer and other “national experts and everyday Minnesotans” were limited from participating, which Swearer said “goaded” Democrats into allowing her to speak for two minutes.

The National Foundation for Gun Rights said its executive director, Hannah Hill, was also told she could not testify.Committee chairs typically limit witness participation at hearings for time purposes, but those restrictions can spur accusations of selectively suppressing certain voices.