Minnesota lawmakers pass firearm restrictions after school shooting push

Minnesota’s push for new gun restrictions reached a breaking point this spring, and the first people in Otter Tail County who would feel it are the ones closest to schools, sales counters and law enforcement desks. The Senate approved a package on May 4 by a 34-33 party-line vote that would ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines and add school safety, mental health and safe-storage provisions.

The move came after the Aug. 27, 2025 shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School in Minneapolis, where two children were killed and dozens more were injured. The shooter fired 116 rounds in about two minutes, a fact that hardened the debate over what Minnesota should do next and kept school security at the center of the session.

For Otter Tail County, the practical questions are straightforward. School officials in places like Perham would be among the first to review any new safety requirements. Sheriffs and deputies would be responsible for enforcing whatever survives the Capitol fight. Firearms retailers and instructors would be watching the closest for changes to how semiautomatic military-style weapons, large-capacity magazines and related equipment are sold, stored or taught.

The details are already moving through state machinery. The Minnesota Revisor of Statutes listed HF5160 on May 17 as a firearms bill regulating semiautomatic military-style assault weapons and large-capacity magazines. The bill text also covers school and safe-storage provisions, reenacts the binary trigger ban and criminalizes ghost guns. If that language becomes law, it would set the rules statewide, not city by city.

That matters because local bans remain blocked by Minnesota’s preemption law unless state law changes. Minneapolis unanimously passed its own assault-weapon ban on May 7, but it would not take effect under current state law. More than a dozen cities had already pledged after the Annunciation shooting to pursue similar ordinances if they could.

The House still has not matched the Senate’s vote. A House committee deadlocked 10-10 on related gun bills on Feb. 25, and House Democrats later staged an overnight sit-in on May 15 to force a floor vote before session’s end. Gun-rights advocates, including Rob Doar of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center, said the measures would likely invite legal challenge. For Otter Tail County, the result is a waiting period with real stakes, especially for schools, gun owners and the people who would have to enforce the rules first.