Issue Position: Right to Bear Arms
Issue Position
THE SECOND AMENDMENT TO OUR UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION GUARANTEES A FUNDEMENTAL RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS.
This fundamental right to keep and bear arms is no more subject to regulation by the states than is the right to free speech or freedom of religion.
SOME FACTS AND FIGURES
*Since permits to carry concealed handguns were granted in Minnesota in 2005, there were four lawful and justifiable shootings by permit holders.
*According to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), there are 88,350 active permits to carry handguns in Minnesota.
*Fifty-eight of those permits have been revoked (that's just over six in 10,000 or 0.0656 percent).
*Only ONE (1) person has been convicted of using a conceal-and-carry gun in a homicide. (That's a rate of 1.13 per 100,000 such permits or 0.00113 percent.)
A STRANGE NOTION
Many of those who advocate for "gun control"--that is, the infringement upon the Second Amendment's constitutional right to keep and bear arms--hold this strange notion: that the woman found in an alley, raped and then strangled with her own pantyhose, is somehow morally superior to the woman who must explain to the police how her attacker died of a gunshot wound to his chest.
This kind of reasoning makes little sense to me.
ACTIONS
Therefore, I would
*Support an amendment to the Minnesota constitution to bring it in line with the U.S. Constitution, thus granting a constitutional right to Minnesota citizens to keep and bear arms.
*Oppose any additional restrictive legislation regulating the sale, use or possession of firearms or ammunition.
*Support reformation of Minnesota's laws so that every law-abiding citizen would have the right to meet force with force and would have no "duty to retreat."
*Support a resolution encouraging Minnesota public schools to adopt the NRA's Eddie Eagle GunSafe® accident prevention program (or similar program with certified instructors) as part of their curriculum.
Source