A last-ditch sit-in, floor theatrics and heated confrontations were not enough to save Democratic Gov.
Tim Walzs sweeping gun-control package, which expired at midnight Monday with the close of Minnesotas legislative session.
According to Western Journal, the effort collapsed after Democrats in the Minnesota House failed in a dramatic attempt to force a vote on a companion bill to SF 4067, the Senates omnibus gun-control measure. The motion deadlocked 67-67, triggering angry exchanges on the House floor and exposing deep partisan divisions over the Second Amendment in a state that has increasingly become a testing ground for progressive gun policies.
Following the failed procedural maneuver, Democratic lawmakers staged a sit-in on the House floor, demanding that Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth bring the bill up for a vote before the session ended. Their protest, however, did not move leadership, and the legislation quietly died when the clock struck midnight CDT, leaving Walzs gun-control agenda stalled despite weeks of pressure from the governor and gun-control activists.
Second Amendment advocates hailed the outcome as a critical victory for constitutional rights and a rebuke to Walzs aggressive push to restrict firearms ownership. Weve greatly appreciated Speaker Demuths unwavering defense of the Second Amendment throughout the 2025-2026 Legislative Biennium, the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus posted on X Sunday, shortly before the sessions end.
The group underscored the stakes of the fight, praising Demuth for refusing to bend under pressure from the Democratic-controlled Senate and the governors office. That leadership has mattered most over the past two weeks, as she has stood firm against the Senates sweeping gun ban omnibus bill, SF 4067.
Walz had demanded passage of SF 4067 in the wake of a horrific shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, where a gunman opened fire during a back-to-school Mass. The attacker killed two children and wounded at least 17 others before taking his own life, a tragedy the governor quickly used to justify a far-reaching crackdown on law-abiding gun owners.
The proposed package included a ban on modern semiautomatic firearms, a red flag law allowing authorities to seize guns based on allegations, and restrictions on so?called ghost guns. Rather than focusing narrowly on criminals and mental health failures, Walzs plan sought to impose broad new limits on millions of responsible gun owners, a hallmark of the lefts gun-control strategy nationwide.
The political backdrop in Minnesota has been further darkened by another shocking crime involving state officials. Two months before the school shooting, Democratic state Rep. Melissa Hortmann and her husband were murdered, while another state lawmaker and his wife were seriously wounded in a separate attack.
That case took an even more disturbing turn when the accused killer a former political appointee of Walz claimed in a letter to the FBI that he was acting on behalf of the governor, according to the New York Daily News. While there is no evidence Walz had any involvement, the episode underscored the dangers of politicizing violence and raised questions about the vetting of political appointees in an administration already eager to blame firearms rather than criminals.
Walz has long positioned himself as a hardline gun-control advocate, and his rhetoric has grown increasingly extreme. In a December press conference, Walz signed orders demanding insurance companies hand over data pertaining to firearms, during which he delivered an anti-Second Amendment rant.
We are the murder gun capital of the planet, because people have made the decision to protect gun manufacturers and those who dont want to take responsible action, Walz claimed, adding that arguments that gun bans were an attack on freedom were bullshit. Such language, aimed squarely at demonizing both the firearms industry and ordinary gun owners, reflects a broader progressive narrative that treats constitutional rights as obstacles to be overcome rather than liberties to be preserved.
During the 2024 campaign, when he was selected as the Democratic nominee for vice president, Walz came under renewed scrutiny for his long record on guns. He faced criticism for comments in a video posted to X by the Harris campaign in which he called for a ban on so?called assault weapons, labeling them weapons of war, that I carried in war.
The term assault weapons is a euphemism that gun-control advocates use to gain support for banning semi-automatic firearms with features that give them a cosmetic similarity to firearms capable of fully-automatic operation, which are already heavily regulated under the National Firearms Act of 1934. In practice, these bans target some of the most popular rifles in America, despite their lawful use for self-defense, sport shooting and hunting.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimated that over as of the end of 2023, 32 million modern sporting rifles, which include the AR-15, are in circulation in a January release. That staggering figure underscores why sweeping bans like SF 4067 would not merely tweak gun policy at the margins, but would criminalize ownership of firearms that millions of Americans have purchased legally and used responsibly for decades.
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