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Man looses conceal and carry permit following assault Watch Video Publishing date: 07-23-2004 10:11 AM (KAAL) -- Eric Larson probably knows better than anyone that just because a person is issued a permit to carry a concealed handgun doesn't mean he can use it any way he wants to. The 47-year-old Albert Lea man made his first appearance Thursday in Mower County District Court. Larson is charged with second-degree assault for allegedly pointing a loaded handgun at Austin Burger King manager Samuel Johnson. The incident occurred Tuesday afternoon in Burger King's parking lot following an argument between the two men...

Posted on Wed, Jul. 21, 2004 Hatch appeals gun law ruling BY PATRICK HOWE ASSOCIATED PRESS ST. PAUL - Attorney General Mike Hatch launched a broad response Tuesday to a Ramsey County judge's ruling that struck down the state handgun permit law as unconstitutional. In a flurry of filings, Hatch's attorneys appealed District Judge John Finley's week-old decision to the Court of Appeals, asked the Supreme Court to expedite a review of the decision and requested that Finley stay his decision -- allowing the law to stay in effect -- until the higher courts can rule. Finley's ruling essentially turned...

Hatch appeals judge's handgun ruling BY MARIE McCAIN Pioneer Press Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch has appealed a Ramsey County judge’s decision declaring the state’s newest gun permit law unconstitutional. Hatch’s office filed the request today with the Minnesota Court of Appeals. He also asked the Minnesota Supreme Court to expedite the proceedings. Along with the appeal, Hatch is asking for a stay of District Judge John T. Finley’s earlier decision to overturn the Minnesota Citizens’ Personal Protection Act, while the appeal is considered. Court officials said a separate decision would be issued on the stay request. If granted, it...

Hatch Expected to Appeal Concealed Handgun Law Attorney General Mike Hatch today is expected to appeal a judge's ruling striking down Minnesota's handgun-permitting law. Ramsey County Judge John Finley said the Legislature violated the state Constitution last year by attaching the concealed-carry bill to what he called a "totally unrelated bill" relating to the Department of Natural Resources. The state Constitution prohibits laws from embracing more than one subject. Hatch says he'll appeal the ruling for several reasons, including the rigid application of the single-subject rule in the Constitution. He says the Legislature frequently passes laws containing unrelated subjects. (Copyright...

Tim Penny: For a better permit-to-carry law Tim Penny July 18, 2004 Last week's court decision to strike down the "conceal carry" gun law was based on Article 4 Section 17 of the Minnesota Constitution. [...] With the permit-to-carry issue back in the headlines, Minnesotans have another chance to debate the merits of this legislation. If the court ruling is upheld, the issue will be back before the Legislature in January. Between now and then, legislative candidates should be asked how they intend to vote on this matter -- and whether they'll support reasonable changes in this legislation. [...] Still,...

Minnesotans firing back on gun ruling Conrad Defiebre, Star Tribune July 18, 2004 [...] As a majority of states, prodded by lobbying from the National Rifle Association, began to liberalize their handgun laws in the 1990s, the Minnesota Legislature remained locked over the effects of such a change. Gun-rights proponents argued that an armed citizenry would deter crime; opponents said it would lead to indiscriminate gunplay in public. Little evidence of either outcome has emerged since the law's enactment in Minnesota. Finley's decision focused on none of that, but rather on the constitutional consequences of the unusual parliamentary strategy that...

Conceal and carry ruled unconstitutional KTTC-TV July 13 - A Ramsey County judge says Minnesota's concealed-carry gun law is unconstitutional. The Olmsted County sheriff says the judge's order is creating confusion for sheriffs as far as policy and procedures go. Sheriff Steve Borchardt says it's telling sheriffs to stop issuing permits under conceal and carry but it does not specify what should be done instead. [...]

15-year-old arrested in father's shooting ASSOCIATED PRESS ASKOV, Minn. - A 15-year-old boy was arrested in the shooting death of his father Tuesday. The youth's 14-year-old sister called 911 around 8:30 a.m. to tell authorities her brother had shot their father. Her 11-year-old brother was home at the time, but their mother was at work, investigators said. Norman Rudolph Wright Jr., 48, was found dead on the front lawn of his home, about five miles northwest of Askov. The boy had fled in the family's sport utility vehicle. He abandoned it about two miles from home and started walking, authorities...

CALL FOR ART Banned on these Premises Gun Violence Awareness Art Exhibition Now accepting art in any media, including any visual and/or performance art, representing feelings, thoughts and ideas about gun violence. Popular media emphasizes criminal gun violence, but the true face of gun violence is quite different. This art exhibit and show will capture the reality of the gun violence – domestic violence, suicide, youth gun violence - to help dispel the myth that gun violence is primarily an inner-city, crime problem. The exhibition, sponsored by the Citizens for a Safer Minnesota – Education Fund, will be held from...

Churches, charities air concerns over concealed-carry gun law MINNESOTA: A judge plans to rule on a lawsuit by churches seeking to have the law stuck down. BY MARIE MCCAIN ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS ST. PAUL - Howard Johnson, a Minneapolis grandfather of 16, believes so strongly in his right to carry a concealed weapon -- even in church -- that he showed up in a Ramsey County courtroom Thursday to hear attorneys debate the constitutionality of Minnesota's handgun permit law. "It isn't what you have that causes trouble; it's what you do that causes trouble," said Johnson, 66. "There is...

CONCEAL-CARRY LAW: Permit info reveals culture, not policy If the patterns in permits to pack that emerged after the first year of Minnesota's concealed carry law continue, it will be fair to say this handgun law is a battle in the culture wars more than it is a public safety remedy. We continue to believe that Minnesota would be a better place without this law that passed amid sound and fury in the 2003 Legislature. But the proponents were effective in building the political muscle required to prevail, arguing that a uniform statewide standard was necessary to grant competent citizens...

Overruled permit denials are a point of contention BY LISA DONOVAN Pioneer Press One threatened a co-worker. Another was convicted of fifth-degree criminal sexual conduct. Still another made threats with a firearm. Each of them went to their county sheriff in the last year and applied for a permit to carry a handgun in public. Each was denied. And each appealed the decision and won, according to gun-permit statistics released by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. So, now those people can carry a gun under the state's year-old law that allows law-abiding people to carry a gun in public....

A year later, law's impact unclear Predictions both good, bad not realized BY LISA DONOVAN and JANET ROBERTS Pioneer Press The acrid smell of gun smoke is not rising from every street corner, nor has crime plummeted during the year since Minnesota enacted a gun law allowing law-abiding citizens to carry a pistol in public. "The truth is, I don't know that there has been a change one way or the other here or anywhere else," said Anoka County Sheriff Bruce Andersohn. "We had one side that swore the world would be safer, we'd be in better condition, we'd have...

Law enforcers brace for change in gun culture BY LISA DONOVAN Pioneer Press Twin Cities law enforcement officials see the new handgun law that takes effect today as the start of a cultural change that requires officers and others to get used to seeing law-abiding residents carrying firearms. From officers making traffic stops to the influx of 911 calls from residents concerned about someone with a gun sticking out of a purse, police and the public are in for a learning curve that may take months, said St. Paul and Minneapolis police officials and others. "I think the biggest thing...

First year of concealed carry passes with the safety on ASHLEY H. GRANT Associated Press When Minnesota changed the way it issued handgun permits a year ago, Brian Roeder was among the first to apply. An outdoorsman since his youth, Roeder admits that over the years he often put a handgun in his bag on hunting trips. These days, with his Hennepin County-issued permit, he nearly always keeps a handgun in his truck or with him when he's riding his Harley Davidson. "Now, at least it's legal," he said. Roeder is among the more than 22,000 Minnesotans to receive handgun...

Concealed-carry gun permits haven't led to trouble in Northland BY MARK STODGHILL NEWS TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER Some people in the Northland believe they are safer today. Others fear the opposite is true. All because of a law that was enacted a year ago today. That's when the Minnesota Citizens' Personal Protection Act, also known as the concealed-carry law, allowed permit holders to carry handguns. More than 2,800 permits have been issued in Northeastern Minnesota. None of the region's five sheriffs reported a crime committed by someone carrying a handgun. There were no reports of a permit holder pulling a gun...

Is Minnesota still a DFL state? by Mark Zdechlik, Minnesota Public RadioMay 21, 2004 Minnesota Democratic activists gather in Duluth this weekend for the party's state convention. The main order of business is choosing delegates to the Democratic National Convention later this summer. A good deal of soul searching will take place as well. The DFL has been on a losing streak, suffering a string of electoral setbacks in recent years. But party activists say Democrats are tired of losing and that disdain for the Bush administration has left them more united than they have been in decades. St. Paul,...

Gun foes target Inver Grove Heights manufacturer Kevin Duchschere, Star Tribune May 19, 2004 One of the best reasons to bolster the federal ban on semiautomatic assault weapons, gun-control advocates say, is right in Inver Grove Heights. That's the home of Vulcan Arms Inc., a gun manufacturer that has been in business for fewer than two years and that, according to an antigun group in Washington, D.C., sells a greater variety of "copycat assault weapons" than any other gunmaker in the country. [...] Gun-control advocates will hold a news conference this morning in Minneapolis, focusing on Vulcan Arms and the...

A sad but true tale of 2 bruised women Doug Grow, Star Tribune May 16, 2004 More than two weeks after she was brutally assaulted in her south Minneapolis bookstore, the bruises on Lynn Murray's face still show. [...] On May 1, a Saturday, two young thugs entered her establishment, The Book Trader store, in the middle of the day. They pounded on her with their fists and kicked her before stealing money and some of the collectibles she sells. [...] Six blocks away, Susan Knox is dealing with a different sort of bruising, the internal kind. Knox, 40, is...

Republican senator leads battle from Stillwater base Proposed amendment puts city at the center of gay-rights debate BY MARY DIVINE Pioneer Press With the recent boycott of Stillwater's downtown shopping district and a fight this week over seats on the city's human-rights commission, the birthplace of Minnesota suddenly finds itself thrust onto center stage of the state's gay-rights debate. The controversy can all be traced to Sen. Michele Bachmann, R-Stillwater, whose knack for picking hot-button social issues has made her a rising star in the Republican Party and a focus of outrage from those on the political left. Bachmann is...