Ask and you shall receive.

Earlier today, I urged the Senate GOP to get up and get behind Rep. Deb Hilstrom’s gun bill, which I call “The Good Gun Bill”.

About an hour ago, Senator Julianne Ortman introduced a companion bill in the Senate (SF 1359).

The bill has the same objectives as Hilstrom’s bill in the House:

• Cracks down on “Straw Purchases”
• Improves the state’s data reporting to its own background checks and the Feds’ “NICS” system.
• Improves Reporting of court records showing ineligibility to own guns due to mental health reasons – and creates the state’s first process for people to get their rights restored.
• Clamps down on felons and repeat criminals who use guns to commit violent crimes.

And it does all this without addressing, much less infringing, the rights of the law-abiding gun owner.

My opinion – and it’s just my opinion?  The GOP needs to get behind this.  A lot of legislators – including a few outstate DFLers – have put a lot on the line to defy their party’s Metrocrat inner circle.  In this case, DFL Senators Lyle Koenen, Kent Eken, Dan Sparks, Tom Saxhaug and LeRoy Stumpf have gone against the Metrocrats.  This is a good thing (and having David Hann, Senator Warren Limmer, Senator David Osmek, Senator DaveThompson, Senator Jeremy Miller, Senator Julie Rosen, Senator David Brown, SenatorBranden Petersen, Senator Dan Hall, Senator David Senjem, Senator Roger Chamberlain,Senator Mary Kiffmeyer, Senator Bill Weber, Senator Eric Pratt, Senator Michelle Benson,and Senator Paul Gazelka on board isn’t chicken feed).

The Sheriff’s Association, likewise, has reversed its usual behavior, and is supporting the law-abiding gun owner; this behavior needs to be reinforced with support and success.

The Good Gun Bill is good politics.  The GOP in the legislature needs to do this.

UPDATE:  Here’s Senator Ortman’s press release:

Media Release – Ortman – Gun Crime Enforcement Proposal – SF 1359 (2013)