Minnesota Democrats on Monday passed a bill pairing extreme gun control policies with bipartisan safe school measures, putting their partisan agenda over protecting students. The bill has no path forward in the House, putting funding for safe schools and mental health in jeopardy this session.

Senator Andrew Lang (R–Olivia) released the following statement:

“We all want safer communities. We all grieve when violence occurs. But we must be honest, this bill targets law-abiding citizens - hunters, sport shooters, veterans, and everyday Minnesotans - not the criminals,” said Sen Lang. “Under proposals like Senate File 4067, Minnesota would not just regulate firearms, it would ban the possession of widely owned, commonly used semiautomatic firearms, impose criminal penalties, and force citizens into compliance schemes simply for owning products they legally purchased. This is a fundamental shift in the relationship between citizens and their government.”

Senate Republicans offered an amendment that would strip the bill-stopping gun control measures and send a bipartisan school safety and mental health funding package to the House for passage, but it failed on party lines.

The amendment preserved: $20 million in safe schools supplement aid, $2.7 million for school-linked behavioral and mental health grants, $3.8 million for mobile crisis grants, and additional funding for certified family peer specialists, anonymous school threat reporting, mental health services, and mental health care professionals, would have passed with bipartisan support. It also increased from $1 million to $2 million the amount available to non-public schools for safety concerns.