Pressure mounts for gun control as Minnesota legislative session nears end
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As the legislative session nears its end, House Democrats and gun control advocates are making a last-ditch effort to advance a stalled gun violence prevention package.
The House DFL caucus is planning to do an overnight sit-in Thursday in the House Chamber over inaction from the House GOP on a Senate-approved gun violence prevention package. The House DFL also motioned on the floor Thursday to suspend House rules to take up the bill — a push that is likely to fail, as it requires 90 votes.
Earlier in the day, gun control advocates from Students Demand Action, Moms Demand Action and Protect Minnesota delivered over 8,000 petitions to House Speaker Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring.
Gov. Tim Walz and legislative leaders reached an end-of-session deal late Wednesday night that did not show any compromises on gun control in response to the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting, though it did include $21 million for school safety measures like mental health resources and anonymous threat reporting.
No House GOP members have publicly indicated they would vote for gun control. Before session break in late March, the House DFL tried to force a vote on separate, standalone bills on assault weapons and high-capacity magazine bans, which failed in a 67-67 party-line vote.
Timberlyn Mazeikis, with Students Demand Action, discusses gun control at the Capitol in St. Paul on Thursday, May 14, 2026. (Mary Murphy / Forum News Service)
“If the vote fails, the vote fails,” said Chad Kuyper, co-lead of the Minnesota chapter of Moms Demand Action. “That is all we are asking for: Just go on record.”
“What does it say about your position on this issue if you aren’t willing to speak it with your full chest, if you aren’t willing to stand 10 toes down on it?” he said. “Six months from now, all of Minnesota will have a voice. The entire Legislature is on the ballot, and we will remember who stood up for the safety of our communities and who ran and hid.”
Some Republicans have said they already went on the record with the vote in late March.
“It was not uncommon knowledge that the gun control issues were not going to pass in a tied House,” Rep. Paul Torkelson, R-Hanska, said Wednesday. “I think that was obvious from when the governor first brought those issues to the forefront during the summer and promised a special session that never happened, because there’s no agreement, and those issues are not going to get through a tied House.”
“Our side just doesn’t believe that passing more gun laws is really the best way to approach this issue,” he added. “Crazy people get their hands on guns and do crazy things. We don’t like it any more than they (Democrats) do.”
Walz didn’t seem convinced Thursday that the bill would fall on a 67-67 vote if it did come up in the House.
“I’ve said this all along: If you’re going to vote ‘no,’ and you believe this idea of these assault weapons and high-capacity magazines — you absolutely believe with all your being that that is a right that can never be infringed upon in any way, you should proudly then vote ‘no’ against this,” Walz said.
“It makes me wonder, why don’t you want to vote on this? And I think we all know it — if this bill comes to the House floor, it will pass. That’s clearly why it’s not coming to the House floor,” he said.
Demuth reiterated Thursday that the bills, more or less, have been voted on several times and failed. She also reiterated that her caucus only wants to engage in standalone bills — the Senate sent over a package of several smaller bills.
“We have taken bills up that already on these same topics, individually within committee, that have failed on a party-line vote; they failed to move through,” Demuth said. “Other urgencies have been brought forward that have failed and not gone through. So we have absolutely taken votes, they just haven’t turned in the way that we’re hearing some people want.”
House Leader Zack Stephenson, DFL-Coon Rapids, said Thursday that his caucus will “continue to fight” for the issue in the remaining days of the session.
It’s not clear what other tools lawmakers could use, but regardless of how the last few days shake out, Maggiy Emery, executive director of Protect Minnesota, said, “I think it’s clear that this is the issue that is going to rule the end of session.”
Jennifer Davis (left) is joined by fellow Annunciation parents advocating for gun control at the Capitol in St. Paul on Thursday, May 14, 2026. (Mary Murphy / Forum News Service)
Annunciation parents have been at the Capitol throughout the session, sharing their personal stories with lawmakers, hoping to move the needle. One of the parents there Thursday was Jennifer Davis, who said she wasn’t involved in politics before the shooting.
“My child was in church that day, and that day changed our lives,” she said. “He was crying under a church pew and watching his friends be shot, and he has told me he has forgotten about it. He doesn’t want to talk about it. And I said, ‘Well, we lost Harper and Fletcher. We can’t forget about it.’ ”
Davis said she’s from Virginia, where gun control legislation passed, and that she thought Minnesota would be able to pass it, too.
“We had such momentum” after the vote in the Senate, she said, before being met with gridlock in the House.
“It’s hurtful,” Davis said. “This is the furthest we’ve gotten on gun legislation, and I feel like we have the momentum, we have people behind us. 80% of Minnesotans want this, but people are too wrapped up in their own political motivations to actually do anything for our children, and that’s sad.”
