Minnesota human rights advocates got the Department of Public Safety to roll back a series of intrusive and, I suspect, illegal questions on the Minnesota carry permit application form yesterday.
That’s all to the good – as I noted below.
Now, let’s talk about reporting.
Channel 5’s Beth McDonough reported the story. You can go to the link to watch it; the fella in the maroon shirt is not “Corey Bowman”, but in fact Andrew Rothman, president of the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance. Editing glitches happen.
But what I’m going to do is emphasize all of the elements in the online story that are prejudicial, signs of bias, or lead to much bigger questions – or would, if we had a news media that was interested in asking big questions of government, which we largely do not.
I’ll add emphasis to the parts of the story with the problems:
The way you apply for a permit to carry a gun in Minnesota is back to the way it was.
It’s all because of 18 questions on a new application. Some argue it asks for too much information.
Like a lot of Minnesotans Corey Bowman owns a gun, “being a hunter and avid outdoorsman.”
Helping to give Minnesota a reputation as the land of 100,000 guns. [1] In fact, 165,000 people have permits to carry, according to state records—the most ever in Minnesota.
To get a permit to carry, you have to fill out an application, one standard form. But before Tuesday, that application contained 18 fewer questions. Some of those include: whether you’ve been in treatment for substance abuse, fled the state to avoid prosecution or if you’ve been convicted of a crime as a juvenile.
Those questions lasted less than 36 hours online, because of backlash from gun rights enthusiasts. [2]
“At worst, it’s creating dozens of additional opportunities for somebody to make an accidental mistake that results in the denial of their permit application or even criminal charges,” according to Andrew Rothman with the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance.
The now-former application said the information was required, leaving the impression the permit couldn’t be processed without all the questions answered. And that’s okay with Corey Bowman. [3]
“These are the kind of questions that would pick out the people that don’t need to have the firearms,” [4] Bowman said.
The Department of Public Safety told us it updated the permit to carry form to reflect changes made by lawmakers in 2014. [5]
So let’s go through them one by one:
- Nobody has ever called Minnesota anything of the sort. For starters, there are at least 2.5 million guns in Minnesota. I get it – reporters like their snappy quips. But please.
- Was Martin Luther King a “civil rights enthusiast?” Are the people who are protesting police brutality “civil liberties enthusiasts?” Were the Occupy Minneapolis people “rape and filth enthusiasts?” No. Someone who tinkers with model airplanes in his spare time is an “enthusiast”; people who fight for civil rights are “activists”. Unless, apparently, it’s the Second Amendment.
- Well, that’s great. Who the hell is Corey Bowman? I’m sure he’s a fine person and al, but why is Corey Bowman’s opinion important to us? He’s an authority on carry permit law because he’s a hunter?
- No. The permits are issued or denied based on information that is available to police for the asking; criminal and court records and things in that weight class. This was nothing but a petulant attempt to try to trip people up.
- What changes in the law? Other than the domestic abuse law – which affected permits after they were issued, and for which the information needed to deny permits is already automatically available to the police – there were no changes in the law in the 2014 session that anyone I know can think of.
More on this, hopefully, tomorrow.
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