A few days after the assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Hope Walz, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz’s daughter, shared some thoughts on TikTok.
“Gun control doesn’t just save Democrats’ lives, it also saves Republican lives,” She opines in a selfie. “Um, you’d think we would be at a point now where we could, um, call for some commonsense legislation. But, I don’t know: I don’t know.”
Having watched her dad’s clownish machinations to get the Minnesota Legislature to pass an assault weapons ban, it’s easy to see the apple doesn’t fall from the tree.
In a solid win for gun rights, the fat lady has sung for a ban in this session of the Minnesota Legislature. [The fat lady didn’t sing; she loudly harangued a Republican House member and allegedly made a remark that was both obscene and violent.]
🚨 Democrats in the Minnesota House have gone completely UNHINGED 🚨
When house dems didnt get the vote they wanted on the most extreme gun-grabbing bill in the country HF5140 one of their own, Rep. Gomez, actually told Republican @elliottengenMN to “go fucking kill himself.”… pic.twitter.com/nwNwZ9FjEw
— Drew Roach (@DrewRoachMN) May 15, 2026
Thanks to Speaker Lisa Demuth and the united Republicans in the evenly divided Minnesota House, HF 5140 died in committee Sunday night when the legislative session ended. HF 5140 included an assault weapons ban and other anti-gun measures.
While the Legislature was fighting over a state ban, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey signed a city ordinance that mirrored HF 5140.
Calling it one of the “(L)eading pieces of legislation in the entire country,” Frey said, “Think about families, think about kids that have tragically lost their lives and the many more lives that will be lost if we do not act now,”
“We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle.* We’re talking about the ability to reel off 20 or 30 bullets before you have to reload. We’re talking about high-capacity magazines and guns that were quite literally built to kill people in large numbers. There’s no reason to have those on our streets.”
Mayor Frey and the City Council were undeterred by Minnesota’s preemption law. Frey commented, “This is going to set us up so that if the preemption is lifted, Minneapolis won’t need to act because we already did.”
About 1,200 miles to the southeast, Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger signed the Commonwealth’s ban into law. James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Mason would be so ashamed.
What is it that makes assault weapons bans so irresistible to gun control fanatics? Is it a requirement for their gun control merit badges? Is it Pavlovian conditioning or too much Kool-Aid?
Out of all the cockamamie measures on the gun-grabbers’ wish list, bans are the most useless. We know this from experience. The 1994-2004 ban didn’t reduce the number of mass shootings and had a negligible effect on violent crime. In fact, FBI Uniform Crime Reporting System statistics show the use of rifles in homicides declined more in the ten years after the ban ended than it did during the ban.
Joe Biden’s rose-colored memories, like the claims of the gun control gang, bear no resemblance to the truth. Pay no attention to them.
What is even crazier is the frenzy to pass more bans when there is a very high probability they will be ruled unconstitutional.
There have been numerous challenges to state bans. Unfortunately, they had to be litigated in U.S. Appellate courts generally sympathetic to gun control laws. This includes courts in the First, Second, Fourth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits.
Judicial excuses include the resemblance of the banned rifles to military weapons, which would be ridiculous if it weren’t absurd, and denying they are in common use for lawful purposes, even though there are an estimated 32 million in circulation in the U.S.
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The Supreme Court has been dragging its feet. However, recent Department of Justice actions may light a fire under the justices.
Based on the court’s holdings in Heller and Bruen, the Second Amendment protects arms in common use for lawful purposes.
Using that standard, the DOJ has filed lawsuits against the District of Columbia and Denver, Colorado.
In recent comments, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said:
“I think the AR-15 ban is one that really is a kind of low-hanging fruit, because the Supreme Court held in a 9-0 opinion in the Smith and Wesson case that the AR-15 is the most commonly owned and operated rifle in the United States. And so when you add that statistic to the ruling in the Bruen and Heller decisions, which talk about firearms that are in common use and for law-abiding citizens, that leads to the inexorable conclusion that the AR-15 is presumptively legal all over America.”
“And denial of the right to own it and, in fact, criminalization of that in Denver, is something that is long overdue to be updated. And we intend to make sure they do that.”
Here’s what the Supreme Court actually said in Smith & Wesson v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos:
“Mexico here focuses on the manufacturers’ production of “military style” assault weapons, among which it includes AR–15 rifles, AK–47 rifles, and .50 caliber sniper rifles. But those products are both widely legal and bought by many ordinary consumers. (The AR–15 is the most popular rifle in the country). The manufacturers cannot be charged with assisting in criminal acts just because Mexican cartel members like those guns too.”
The court’s opinion was written by Justice Elena Kagan. All nine justices concurred.
Assistant Attorney General Dhillon also intends to sue Virginia but says she will likely hold off until the court takes its summer break. While she isn’t taking any bets yet, she believes the Supreme Court will make the AR ban-proof.
See you in court! 👉🏽👉🏽 👉🏽 pic.twitter.com/lL37OTUOXH
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) May 15, 2026
Common sense and gun control make an oxymoron, a contradiction in terms. Nowhere in the known universe would garbage like the gun grabbers’ agenda make any sense at all.
*Frey’s remark about “your father’s hunting rifle” is literally straight out of the gun control playbook. He’s assuming his audience is as ignorant as he is. This is a bad idea, considering how popular hunting is in Minnesota.
The first American-made semiautomatic rifle offered to hunters was the Winchester Model 1903. The first semiautomatic rifle with a detachable magazine capable of holding more than ten rounds appeared in 1907.
The first American bolt-action rifle designed for hunters was the Savage Model 1920. Before then, bolt-action rifles were Army surplus Krag-Jorgensens and M1903 Springfields. Unlike the AR-15, these rifles really were
The Colt AR-15 Sporter went on sale 61 years ago. I am a grandfather. I hunted varmints with an AR in the days when Nixon was President.
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About Bill Cawthon
Bill Cawthon first became a gun owner 55 years ago. He has been an active advocate for Americans’ civil liberties for more than a decade. He is the information director for the Second Amendment Society of Texas.
