We read about Wednesday night's College Republicans' sponsored candidate forum in Trey Mewes' GOP candidates make 1st big pitch for governor in the Mankato Free Press. It's a interesting article that may appear in a couple of posts here. Here's the first take, on the front runner and favorite Bluestem topic, former state senator Scott Jensen.
Before filing, Mewes had tweeted:
Jensen gets a specific question on gun control, asked how he can be pro 2A and also talk with the Moms Demand Action group. Jensen says he never promised to support background checks but got a picture taken with members of the group he knows.
— Trey Mewes (@MFPTreyMewes) November 4, 2021
Gun rights activist Rob Doar, Political Director of Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, fired back on Thursday morning:
He never promised to support background checks?
— Rob Doar (@robdoar) November 4, 2021
He authored the effen bill. https://t.co/4efMbGGvpO pic.twitter.com/Ry8LZ22zVh
We think Doar has a point.
KARE-11's John Croman reported in Background checks bill attracts Republican support on March 12:
A universal background checks bill achieved something no other firearms regulation bill has done this session; it attracted Republican supporters.
Sen. Paul Anderson of Plymouth and Sen. Scott Jensen of Chaska, both Republicans and both members of the National Rifle Association, joined two Democrats on the legislation.
"If you want to be Sunday School teacher, or work in the nursery at our church, you have to go through a background check," Sen. Anderson told reporters. "I’ve been a youth sports coach. I’ve had to go through a background check."
The measure would require that private gun transactions -- sales and transfers -- be done in the presence of a federally licensed firearms dealer who can run the buyer's name through the National Instant Criminal Background Checks System, or NICS.
A companion bill would require gun owners to immediately report lost or stolen weapons, as a way to expose straw buyers who have been known to claim falsely that they lost a gun that they actually gave to a person who is unqualified to purchase one.
"I don’t think I’m going to lose my seat over this issue, but if I do, Que sera!," Sen. Jensen remarked.
"I look at it being elected as being hired by my constituents. I work for them. I don’t work for any group down here"
The odds of the bills getting a hearing this year are fairly slim. Sen. Warren Limmer, the Maple Grove Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he won't hold hearings unless directed to by Senate leadership.
And on Monday, Republican Paul Gazelka of Nisswa, the Senate Majority Leader, made it clear he won't let such hearings happen.
"There is no time to waste on ideas that don't work, or have no chance of passing the legislature this year," Gazelka declared, in a written statement issued to the Capitol press.
Jensen, who is also a physician, said that he has treated gunshot victims throughout his medical career. But this year he has heard from constituents, even firearms dealers, who support expanding background checks to private transactions.
"This piece of legislation is going to have a journey, and this is a first step," he said. "And we’re expecting our colleagues to come alongside us and help us."
Rob Doar, of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, says his group opposes universal background checks because there's no way to enforce it.
He said that, without a gun registry, the state won't know if individuals are selling guns to each other, or complying with the law. And his organization is dead set against firearms registries.
The DFL authors are Sen. Matt Little of Lakeville and Sen. Susan Kent of Woodbury.
"Savings students’ is more important than anyone’s partisan agenda," Sen. Little said.
"I’m not worried. I’m not worried. I think my district supports this. The people I’ve heard from my district support that."
Sen. Anderson said he wants the conversation to continue, especially in light of the Valentine's Day mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida.
"We are not living in the Mayberry Days or the Leave it to Beaver Days of everything’s fine," he said. "I think sometimes as adults we try to wrestle with what was, but we live in a different world today."
Go over to KARE-11 and watch the clip.
Here's the entire Moms Demand Act press release Doar quoted, issued a couple of days later on March 15, 2018: Minnesota Moms Demand Action, Everytown Applaud Bipartisan Push to Require Background Checks on All Minnesota Gun Sales:
The Minnesota chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, today applauded the announcement of bipartisan legislation that would require crimibackground checks on all Minnesota gun sales and require gun owners to report when guns are lost or stolen. The introduction of the legislation, sponsored by Sen. Matt Little (DFL-Lakeville), Sen. Scott Jensen (R-Chaska), Sen. Paul Anderson (R-Plymouth) and Sen. Susan Kent (DFL-Woodbury), was announced at a press conference this morning.
Federal law requires licensed gun dealers to conduct criminal background checks on gun sales, but there is no federal background check requirement for unlicensed sales, including sales initiated online and sales made at gun shows. While a number of states have passed background check requirements to address this loophole, Minnesota has not. In states that require background checks on all handgun sales, there are 53 percent fewer law enforcement officers killed with firearms in the line of duty, 47 percent fewer women are shot to death by intimate partners and 47 percent fewer firearm suicides.
Laws requiring gun owners to report lost and stolen guns protect public safety and support enforcement of strong background check laws.
STATEMENT FROM ERIN ZAMOFF, VOLUNTEER CHAPTER LEADER WITH THE MINNESOTA CHAPTER OF MOMS DEMAND ACTION FOR GUN SENSE IN AMERICA:
“Today in Minnesota, it’s far too easy to get a gun with no questions asked. This has to change. Wide majorities of Republicans and Democrats support requiring background checks on all gun sales, and we’re thrilled to see lawmakers from both parties standing up for this common-sense public safety measure. We’ll be doing everything we can to make sure our elected officials enact the sensible policies announced today.”
Two gun law related bills were introduced into the Minnesota Senate on March 14, 2018. There was SF 3279, "Criminal background checks for firearm transfers requirement." Jensen was an author of the bill when it was introduced, but had has name stricken from the bill on May 1, 2018. It's on page 8484 of the journal of the Senate.
Jensen's name remained on SF 3278, the bill about the other part of Moms Demand Action agenda: "Stolen or lost firearms reporting requirement and penalty imposition."
The ultra-conservative political group, North Star Liberty Alliance addressed the bills in Scott Jensen Tries To Defend His Poor Record On Guns back in August. The post attributes Jensen's removal of his name from SF 3279 to activists in his district:
In 2018, Senator Jensen co-sponsored TWO gun control proposals that were introduced by left-wing legislators. The first being a proposal that would enact universal background checks on gun purchases, and the second would make it a crime to not immediately report missing firearms.
Jensen later removed his name from the background check proposal after receiving severe backlash from liberty-activists in his conservative state senate district.
At the top of this article, we find the photo of Jensen with two Moms Demand Action group:
With the announcement by Senator Kent that she won't seek office in 2022, none of the original authors of both bills will be serving in the Minnesota senate in 2023.
The episode in Mankato reminds us of Jensen's insistence that he's not anti-vaccine, even though he consorted with anti-vaxxers before the pandemic. We first took note of Jensen in our January 2019 post, Minnesota, kiss your herd immunity good-bye: Senator Scott Jensen cuddles up to anti-vaxxers. And there's MNGOP gubernatorial candidate Jensen earns another anti-vaxx headline, with Jan 6 attack doc and there's Igor Derysh's GOP doctor running for Minnesota governor denies he's an anti-vaxxer — he's just anti-vax-curious at Salon.
Ah, yes, the Republican gubernatorial frontrunner, as consistent as the way the wind blows. We'll give his excuse that he just had a picture taken with constituents who are Moms members, but didn't sponsor the bill a pants-on-fire fib.
Screengrab: Scott Jensen at the press conference for the gun law bills, still from Background checks bill attracts Republican support, 2018 (above). Scott Jensen and two Moms.
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