By Mark Fischenich
Free Press Staff Writer
February 09, 2009 12:33 am
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Lake Crystal Police Chief and state Rep. Tony Cornish is backing a change in state law to allow people to carry uncased weapons in their vehicles, putting him in a familiar position of backing a gun law that fellow law officers oppose.
“It’s very similar to all the hoopla at the start of the Personal Protection Act,” said Cornish, referring to his previous legislation to allow most Minnesotans to obtain a permit to carry handguns. “It’s following the same path.”
Like that bill, commonly referred to as “conceal and carry,” the uncased weapons legislation is, Cornish said, stirring unreasonable opposition based on exaggerated concerns. He said the law change would be useful to some hunters without causing any real public safety problems.
Blue Earth County Sheriff Brad Peterson is opposed to the legislation and expects most of his colleagues feel the same.
“I would bet there’s a pretty high consensus that the answer is ‘No, we have to fight this one,’” Peterson said.
For Peterson, there are two problems with the bill. First, it increases the likelihood of accidental shootings because a gun in a case — as is required now — is less vulnerable to unintended firing while being placed in or removed from a vehicle.
“You have less chance of touching the trigger accidentally or catching the trigger on something,” said Peterson, who said he knows families where accidental shootings occurred in that situation.
Secondly, Peterson said, having uncased rifles or shotguns in vehicles would increase the likelihood of unethical hunters shooting from roadsides.
“I think you’re just promoting more chances for people breaking the laws,” he said. “There’d be more temptation there for people.”
Cornish believes concerns are overblown, pointing to a letter from Andy Alban, the law enforcement program administrator for the South Dakota Department of Game, Fish and Parks. South Dakota, where hunting for small game from within road right-of-ways is allowed, doesn’t require guns in vehicles to be cased.
Alban wrote that “very few” hunting accidents are a direct result of uncased guns in vehicles. He also doesn’t believe allowing uncased guns endangers conservation officers or leads to the breaking of game laws.
Cornish, who is co-sponsor of the House bill carried by Democratic Rep. David Dill of Crane Lake, also has pushed for changes to reduce opposition to the bill. Cornish would amend the bill so that it doesn’t apply to handguns, unless the driver has a permit under the Personal Protection Act; prohibits uncased guns from school parking lots; would not apply to cities that don’t allow the discharge of firearms within city limits; and doesn’t pertain to vehicles where occupants are raccoon hunting or using artificial lights.
And the biggest change favored by Cornish: Uncased guns in vehicles would have to be unloaded, both in the chamber and the magazine.
A Department of Natural Resources report showed that there are more hunting-related gun accidents around vehicles in the Dakotas, but Cornish said laws in those states allow the guns to be put in the vehicle with ammunition in the magazine (North Dakota) or both the chamber and the magazine (South Dakota).
Jim Franklin, executive director of the Minnesota Sheriffs Association, said his organization opposes the legislation.
“I guess I just don’t understand the rationale of why anyone would need to carry an uncased, unloaded weapon in your motor vehicle,” Franklin said. “It only takes a second to jacket a weapon into its case.”
Cornish listed a couple of examples of where hunters would benefit.
For instance, if a group of deer hunters had finished driving a field and one of the hunters didn’t bring his gun case, it would now be illegal for him to catch a ride back to his vehicle with his uncased gun, Cornish said.
Waterfowl hunters also would benefit when pursuing a wounded duck, something they’re required to do by law, he said. But if they have a motorized boat, they’re now required to have their gun cased while the boat is in motion. By the time they put their guns in cases, catch up to the bird and uncase the guns, the injured bird will sometimes dive under the water.
But Franklin said most members of his association, looking at the broader implications of uncased weapons in vehicles, consider the bill a bad idea and hope lawmakers come to the same conclusion.
“We hope common sense, logic and safety prevail with our Legislature,” Franklin said. “That’s kind of what we’re banking on.”
The bill, which has been sent to the House subcommittee governing game, fish and forestry issues, still doesn’t have a sponsor in the Senate. Cornish, nonetheless, remains optimistic about its prospects.
“I’ve already counted votes and Dill’s got enough votes to pass it out of the first committee and the second,” Cornish said. “Where it will probably run into questions is the Judiciary Committee.”
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