The Mask Comes Off: Governor-Elect Pushes Gun Ban

Handgun on firearm transaction form with pen — Photo: Guy J. Sagi / Shutterstock

Minnesota’s next governor says she will sign a bill that makes owning certain rifles and magazines a crime unless the state certifies you first.

Story Snapshot

Governor-elect Amy Klobuchar won the race with about 55.5% of the vote and says a sweeping gun bill will pass
Minnesota Senate File 3655 would require background checks, certification, and proof of pre-2027 ownership for certain rifles and magazines
Uncertified possession becomes a gross misdemeanor, then a felony, starting July 1, 2027
Gun owner groups call it a disguised ban and promise a court fight the moment it passes

A Landslide Win Becomes a Launchpad for Gun Policy

Klobuchar did not sneak into office. She beat Republican Lisa Demuth by a wide margin, pulling in roughly 55.5% of the statewide vote according to official results. That kind of margin gives a governor real political muscle. But a big win on election night does not automatically mean voters signed off on every policy a candidate plans to push once sworn in.

Supporters frame the coming bill as basic public safety. Critics see something else entirely: a campaign promise about affordability and moderate government quietly swapped out for a gun-control push the moment votes were counted. Social media reaction split hard along those lines within hours of her victory speech, with gun owners calling it a bait-and-switch.

What the Bill Actually Does

Senate File 3655, paired with companion file 4067, is not vague messaging. It lays out a real system. Owners of covered semiautomatic rifles and large-capacity magazines would need to prove they owned the item before 2027, pass a background check, and get certified through the state’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Miss that step, and simple possession turns into a crime.

The penalties escalate fast. A first violation after the July 1, 2027 deadline is a gross misdemeanor. Later violations become felonies. The bill also blocks transfers of covered large-capacity magazines except to law enforcement for surrender and destruction, a detail that critics say reveals the true goal of the legislation.

Gun Owners Say the Label “Regulation” Hides a Ban

Robert Doar of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center argues the targeted firearms are common, legal, and protected under the Second Amendment. “Ordinary people should not be criminalized for owning ordinary things,” he said, warning that bans push ownership underground instead of stopping crime. Bryan Strawser of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus added that under one earlier version, covered firearms could only be kept at home, and police could inspect how they were stored.

Fox News at it again.

Fox claimed it was all about fraud in Minnesota
Gov-elect Amy Klobuchar made addressing state government fraud top priority of campaign & transition plan.

Now they want outrage over modest gun control bill that already passed MN Senate.…

— Janice Hough (@leftcoastbabe) November 11, 2026

A submission filed with the Minnesota House went further, arguing that magazines holding more than ten rounds are in common use nationwide and cannot legally be banned outright, calling the ten-round line an arbitrary political number rather than a safety threshold. Strawser has said his group backs the bill’s school-safety and mental-health funding but draws a hard line at what he calls an infringement on the rights of peaceable Minnesotans, and has already signaled a lawsuit is coming if the bill becomes law.

The Research Gap Nobody on Either Side Wants to Talk About

Here is the inconvenient part for both camps. RAND’s long-running review of firearm policy research finds the evidence on assault weapon bans and total or firearm homicides inconclusive. It finds only limited evidence that magazine capacity limits reduce mass-shooting deaths. That does not prove the bill is useless, but it does mean nobody can honestly promise it will cut gun violence in Minnesota. Courts have split too, with some circuits upholding similar magazine limits and the broader Second Amendment landscape still unsettled after the Supreme Court’s Bruen decision.

That gap matters because Minnesota is about to run a real-world experiment on hundreds of thousands of gun owners with no solid data backing the promised outcome. Republicans in the legislature have hammered this point all session, arguing the restrictions burden law-abiding owners without proof they stop violent crime. Whatever passes will likely get decided twice, once by lawmakers and governor, and again by a judge.