While the Minnesota state legislature recently adjourned with nearly every gun control measure failing, Gov. Tim Walz has signed a measure relating to triggers that make it easier to fire more rapidly.
HF 5247, the 1,494-page omnibus bill signed by Walz on May 24, includes changes on everything from financing state government to modifying pharmacy reporting requirements. But deep within the bill is vague language banning certain firearm triggers. While the intent of that portion of the measure was to ban binary triggers, it could potentially implicate many common factory installed triggers.
According to the bill’s language, a “trigger activator” includes: “a device that allows a firearm to shoot one shot on the pull of the trigger and a second shot on the release of the trigger without requiring a subsequent pull of the trigger.” While that outlaws binary triggers, which are designed to do just that, the measure also takes in more territory that could be interpreted to ban other triggers and devices, including bump stocks.
The definition of a banned trigger activator also includes, “a device that allows a semiautomatic firearm to shoot more than one shot with a single pull of the trigger or by harnessing the recoil of energy of the semiautomatic firearm to which it is affixed so that the trigger resets and continues firing without additional physical manipulation of the trigger.”
Despite Walz signing the trigger measure, it was still a pretty good legislative session for gun owners and gun-rights advocates in the North Star State as several other anti-gun measures failed to get the votes needed.
House measure that were defeated included a firearms storage requirement that would have impeded a gun owner’s ability to access firearms for self-defense purposes, a requirement to report lost or stolen firearms within 48 hours or face a stiff penalty and a measure that would have permitted local governments to prohibit or restrict a person from possessing a firearm within or on government-owned property, which would have been a direct violation of the state’s firearm preemption law.
Other House measures that failed this session included a measure that would have repealed the state’s preemption law, a ban on many common semi-automatic firearms dubbed “assault weapons” by anti-gun advocates, a ban on the use of lead ammunition for hunting and lead tackle for fishing in Minnesota, and a ban on so-called “high-capacity magazines,” which are actually standard-capacity mags that included with many popular firearms sold today.
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