We have seen some horrible things happen in the last couple of days. While we don’t have official confirmation of all the facts, it seems very likely that a permit holder who didn’t have any violent intentions was . . . → Read More: Falcon Heights shooting: let’s take a deep breath]]>

Gun owners, Second Amendment advocates, and civil rights supporters:

We have seen some horrible things happen in the last couple of days. While we don’t have official confirmation of all the facts, it seems very likely that a permit holder who didn’t have any violent intentions was killed by a Minnesota police officer Wednesday night. Last night, apparently in response, five police officers were killed in Dallas, and seven others were wounded.

In the last 36 hours, GOCRA leadership has been flooded with calls to support the police, to condemn the police, to be louder, and to be quieter. There is little doubt that no one is going to agree with everything we say, and that’s okay. We each see events through the lens of our own life experience and worldview.

But some things need to be said.

That doesn’t mean that there aren’t problems, and that doesn’t mean we don’t have things to fix, but almost all citizens, permit holders, and police officers are good people, just trying to do our best and get through our days.

What unites us is much more than what divides us, and we need, as hard as it can be sometimes, to expect that we will deal with each other with respect, trust, and empathy.

In fact, we barely have any facts.

We do have a ton of assumptions, allegations, and theories. We think Philando Castile was a permit holder — his mom and girlfriend say he was — but that data is, appropriately, private.

We don’t know what transpired during the traffic stop on Wednesday night. We don’t know what was said and done, nor in what order.

We do have a video made by Philando Castile’s girlfriend immediately after the shooting. In it, we can see that both she and Officer Yanez are very shaken up.

Firearm trainers and investigators and psychologists all know that adrenaline messes with your mind, with your perceptions of time and space, and with your memory. That’s why police officers are almost always given a day or two to settle down before being subject to an investigational interview. Because in the moment, their thoughts and memories are going to be jumbled and confused by the stress.

We know that Philando Castile was shot and killed by Officer Jeronimo Yanez during a traffic stop Wednesday night.

We do know that Castile got a lot of traffic tickets in his life, but had never been convicted of any serious or violent crime.

We also know that Officer Yanez has a clean record, with no serious or violent crimes, nor complaints about his work as a police officer.

We have the video of the aftermath.

And that’s about it. I pray that there is good audio and video from the squad car video camera, and that it might shed some light on what happened.

It is almost certain that neither Philando Castile nor Officer Yanez acted with any bad intent.

But! It is entirely possible — even likely — that Castile, or Yanez, or both, made errors in communication, judgement, and tactics that contributed to the outcome.

Right now, there’s a lot of distrust in the air: distrust of the police by citizens, distrust of the integrity of investigations of public officials, distrust of permit holders, distrust of those who advocate for civil rights. Distrust of the media, which sees and reports events through its own lens.

While healthy skepticism is good, a society can’t survive when the people and the government can’t trust each other at all. This Falcon Heights incident needs to be thoroughly investigated, and right now.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is already on the case, and that’s good, but we believe that the Obama Justice Department ought to do its own, independent investigation. We need to get to the bottom of what happened, we need to do it soon.

And when we get the facts from multiple, independent sources, maybe we can trust that they are real, and not a police cover-up.

Better training for police officers can go a long way toward ensuring that a tragedy like this doesn’t happen again. We need to make that happen, and we need to do it now.

EVERY police officer needs to recognize what most do already: permit holders are among the very few certified “good guys” officers will encounter on a shift.

And police departments need to do more — much more — to gain the trust of citizens, and that means more accountability and more transparency.

Yes, that means more body cameras, but it also means police leaders need to have the courage to get rid of the bad apples in their departments. It means that police contracts need to give the chiefs and the cities the authority to get rid of those bad apples.

And it means that police officers have to cross the thin blue line. Police officers need to sometimes say, “No, what this officer did is NOT okay, and he doesn’t belong in our ranks.”

Nobody’s perfect, and every organization has some marginal employees. But when these employees have a badge, a gun, and no direct supervision for most of their shift, the police can’t afford to have ANY marginal employees. With great power comes great responsibility, and police officers wield enormous power. That means that the standard for police officers’ conduct HAS to be higher.

For our police officer friends: it may not seem fair, but you are coming from way behind. It’s not all your fault, but it is absolutely your problem: too many in the community don’t trust you, and you’re going to have to work hard, individually and as a group, to earn back that trust. Your life may one day depend on it.

EVERY permit holder has to remember that guns are powerful tools, capable of strong defense and strong offense, and we need to remember that a police officer may not know the permit holder’s status on initial contact.

Permit holders, let’s go out of our way to make really, really sure that we don’t present a perceived threat to law enforcement officers. Because your life may one day depend on it.

Community leaders need to do more to break down the “no snitch” mentality in the community. Just as the police need to kick out their bad apples, so do we. When criminals hurt others, we need to work with the police to get those criminals caught, and prosecuted, and locked up.

And we need to acknowledge that not every police use of force is unjustified. There are real bad guys out there, and they do resist and attack the police.  Those officers have just as much right as you or I to defend themselves from attack — and they have the added duty to protect society.

When I see trouble, I run away. Cops can’t do that. They need to run toward trouble, and risk their lives, to protect us.

And we all need to lose the “us-vs-them” mentality. The police aren’t the enemy. And neither are the people. We all want to live in a safe, free society.

Let’s let the investigation proceed – quickly. Let’s trust, but verify, that the investigation is thorough and honest. Let’s be more kind, more tolerant, and more patient with the people around us, and treat them with more respect.

We will be watching, carefully, and we’ll be working with our allies in the community and in law enforcement to work toward solutions that will help keep incidents like this from happening again.

What do you think? Get in touch with us by email, on Facebook, or on Twitter, and tell us what you think.

We asked GOCRA’s founder, Professor Joseph E. Olson, to explain.

Note: . . . → Read More: St. Cloud Case: Long Gun Carry and State Preemption]]> A man was stopped and then ticketed by St. Cloud police, for openly carrying a rifle in public. Now he’s suing the city, saying the ticket was illegal, because he has a Minnesota permit to carry a pistol. What does the law say?

We asked GOCRA’s founder, Professor Joseph E. Olson, to explain.

On November 17, 2014, Tyler Gottwalt was stopped by St. Cloud and Sauk Rapids police on the Sauk Rapids Regional Bridge, because he was carrying an AK-47 semi-automatic rifle on his back.

That stop was legal: Under Minnesota law (624.7181), carrying a rifle in a public place is generally forbidden. But there is an exception: it IS legal for a person to carry a long gun in public, if the person has a Minnesota Permit to Carry a Pistol.

Tyler Gottwalt did have a carry permit. Once the officers verified that fact, that should have been the end of the incident.

And for the Sauk Rapids Police officers, that was the end of the incident. They consulted with their County Attorney’s office, and quickly concluded that Tyler hadn’t broken any laws!

The St. Cloud cops were more stubborn. They cited Tyler for carrying a rifle in public, in violation of a St. Cloud ordinance that requires a long gun to be cased or broken apart.

But here’s the problem: St. Cloud isn’t allowed to enforce any ordinance about carrying guns that is different from state law. That’s called state preemption, and I was there at the Capitol, helping to pass that preemption law, back in 1985. It’s been state law ever since.

Again, cities and counties cannot regulate guns! That’s why a county judge threw out the citation. That’s why Tyler is suing the police and the city for false arrest. And that’s why he will win.

There are ordinances like this all over the state. We’ve been able to work with a number of cities to voluntarily remove them. The others, it seems, need to be slapped down in court. We hope that other cities will learn from St. Cloud’s mistake and do the right thing before they end up in hot water and wind up costing their taxpayers money.

Here’s the lawsuit filing: Gottwalt v. Oxton, et al.

Do you think this is the best use of the chief’s time, and of your tax dollars?

Tonight, at the Plymouth City Council meeting, Second Amendment supporters will ask . . . → Read More: Tonight: Tell the Plymouth city council to drop gun control from its agenda!]]> Plymouth police chief Mike Goldstein was at the Capitol last week, shilling for Senator Ron Latz’s gun control bill, SF2980 (watch the channel 12 video here).

Do you think this is the best use of the chief’s time, and of your tax dollars?

Tonight, at the Plymouth City Council meeting, Second Amendment supporters will ask the Council to remove gun control from its legislative priorities. A strong show of support by Plymouth residents will help convince the Council to do the right thing.

We apologize for the late notice; this all came up very quickly.

PLymouth Council Meeting
3/22/2016, 7:00 PM
Council Chambers
3400 Plymouth Blvd.
Plymouth, Minnesota 55447
Google Maps: https://goo.gl/maps/kJ2hncxTwYt

Please show up, wear your GOCRA shirt, and make your voice heard.

Regardless of whether you go, please email the city council and tell them you expect them to respect, not infringe, your Second Amendment rights.

Then, you would have to go to court at your own expense . . . → Read More: Some “Red Flag” Bull]]>

Senator Ron Latz (DFL-46) has reintroduced his California-style “red flag” bill, SF2980, which would allow family members (no matter how distant), or any (current or ex-) girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, or wife to ask a court to have your guns taken by court order.

Then, you would have to go to court at your own expense to try to get them back!

Help us stop this: contact your senator, and demand that he or she oppose this unconstitutional bill.

Sign up for GOCRA gun rights emails, and we’ll always keep you up to date, and provide you with tools to easily contact your elected officials.

The bill passed the first committee with an 11-3, vote. The next . . . → Read More: Lead ban hearing Wednesday]]> As we told you about last week, the DNR is pushing a ban on using lead shot for hunting in over half the state. Last week, we testified in favor of State Representative Tom Hackbarth’s HF3209, which would prevent the DNR from this unilateral regulation.

The bill passed the first committee with an 11-3, vote. The next hearing is Wednesday morning at 10:15.

If you can, please come to show your support:

HF3209 Hearing Government Operations and Elections Policy Committee Wednesday, March 23th, 10:15 a.m. State Office Building, Basement Hearing Room 100 Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd St. Paul, MN 55155 Google Map: https://goo.gl/maps/kuV2dPX5htv

If you can make it, don’t forget to wear your GOCRA shirt (or another maroon shirt)!

(Can’t make it? Can you chip in to support our work?)

As GOCRA President Andrew Rothman testified at the hearing, the attempt to additional lead restrictions are part of a concerted effort by anti-Second Amendment forces to add additional barriers, . . . → Read More: House committee votes to rein in DNR on lead ban]]>

Today, the House Mining and Outdoor Recreation Policy approved HF3209, a bill to prevent the DNR from enacting new rules limiting the use of lead shot.

As GOCRA President Andrew Rothman testified at the hearing, the attempt to additional lead restrictions are part of a concerted effort by anti-Second Amendment forces to add additional barriers, cost, and hassle to buying, owning, selling and firing guns.

The bill, authored by Rep. Tom Hackbarth, with co-authors Josh Heintzeman and Debra Kiel, heads next to the Government Operations and Elections Policy committee.

Here’s the bill:

“The commissioner of natural resources shall not adopt rules further restricting the use of lead shot.”

But sometimes, petty bureaucrats start thinking they’re above the law.

When that happens, we send them a friendly reminder of who . . . → Read More: GOCRA forces state emploment office to follow the law]]>

When GOCRA worked with out legislative allies to pass the Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act in 2003, we made sure that state and local government agencies wouldn’t be able to set their own rules around carry.

But sometimes, petty bureaucrats start thinking they’re above the law.

When that happens, we send them a friendly reminder of who exactly works for whom:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFebruary 4, 2016Contact:Andrew Rothman, PresidentGun Owners Civil Rights Alliance

SAINT PAUL, MINN. – The number of valid Minnesota carry permits is now 221,712, an increase of more than 6,000 in the last month, according to figures released by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

That’s the . . . → Read More: Push for gun control leads to record increase in Minnesota carry permits]]> Largest increase since gun control frenzy following Sandy Hook murders

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 4, 2016
Contact:
Andrew Rothman, President
Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance

SAINT PAUL, MINN. – The number of valid Minnesota carry permits is now 221,712, an increase of more than 6,000 in the last month, according to figures released by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety.

That’s the second-largest increase ever. The largest increase occurred in March 2013, in the wake of calls for increased gun control following the murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

The sharp increase following the San Bernadino, California mass murder — and subsequent calls for more restrictions on firearms — was entirely predictable, according to GOCRA President Andrew Rothman. “Nothing gets people more interested in exercising their rights than the threat of having them taken away,” he said, noting a similar increase after Sandy Hook.

GOCRA’s founder and chairman, Professor Joseph E. Olson, emphasized that although police arrived at the San Bernadino scene in under five minutes, the killers had already taken 14 lives and fled the scene.

“The only solution to a mass murder incident is instant counterfire,” he said. “It doesn’t matter who is shooting back: police, security, or an ordinary citizen.  All that matters is that someone is.  As history shows, after the first armed resistance, the murderer will almost always either give up, or run for cover — and often commit suicide.  Either way, the presence of instant counterfire ends the murdering.  Nothing else does.”

The number of active permits has grown by more than 20,000 in the last six months, a 9.3% increase.

Those numbers mean that more than one in 19 eligible Minnesota adults has a Minnesota Permit to Carry (approximately 3% of Minnesota permits are held by residents of other states).

Background

Since the passage of the Minnesota Citizens Personal Protection Act in 2003, permits to carry a firearm have been available to any adult 21 and over who successfully completes training and passes multiple criminal, mental health, and substance abuse background checks. Prior to that law, permits were issued at the discretion of law enforcement, and numbered about 12,000 statewide in 2003.

While the “Minnesota Permit to Carry A Pistol,” commonly known as a “Carry Permit,” is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a “concealed carry” permit, the law allows either open or concealed carry by licensed individuals.

Data is summarized from monthly reports issued by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Copies of the last seven years of reports may be accessed here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/2w65vr8iveacynv/AACi4SFAkIuuVP47dQVc_Dpwa?dl=0

We have tabulated the monthly numbers here:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/wczla52q0r7kik8/Monthly-since-2003.csv?dl=0

About GOCRA

Founded in 1989, Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance (GOCRA) is a nonprofit advocacy organization focused on supporting and defending the civil rights of Minnesota’s more than two million law-abiding gun owners. GOCRA successfully lobbied for the passage of the Minnesota Citizen’s Personal Protection Act, one of the most effective carry laws in the country. GOCRA was also instrumental in passing the Minnesota Range Protection Act, ensuring that current and future generations will be able to enjoy the shooting sports. In 2015, GOCRA helped pass five separate Second Amendment rights bills through the Minnesota Legislature.

When the State Legislature convenes on the second week in March, WE’LL BE THERE with a clear message: Our Second Amendment rights are not subject to negotiation!

Please mark your calendar now: . . . → Read More: Minnesota Gun Owners Lobby Day 2016]]>

When the State Legislature convenes on the second week in March, WE’LL BE THERE with a clear message: Our Second Amendment rights are not subject to negotiation!

Please mark your calendar now: we know it’s hard to get to St. Paul on a work day, but that’s when the lawmakers are there, and that’s when we can best make our voices heard!

Everyone who signs up (it’s free!) will get one of these cool limited-edition MNGOLD GOCRA shirts!

Keep up with the latest on the event at gocra.org/mngold.