ST. PAUL — Minnesota representatives voted along party lines on a bill to fund school security measures Tuesday ahead of a key deadline and roughly a month out from the session’s end.
The roadblock comes ahead of an April 17 deadline for lawmakers to advance budget bills out of committee in their chamber of origin. Safe school measures have been one of the Republicans’ main asks in response to the Annunciation shooting, while Democrats’ main ask has been gun control.
The bill,
which was laid over in committee, would have a net budget impact of $52 million annually for measures like more security and mental health services in schools. The bill would “encourage” schools to implement an anonymous threat reporting system and would task the state’s existing
Minnesota School Safety Center
to develop an evidence-based school safety plan for schools to potentially implement.
The funds would be used for public, non-public, charter and tribal schools, something Republican lawmakers emphasized Tuesday, April 14.
Democrats on the House Education Finance Committee on Tuesday expressed their general support for the goals of the bill, but all of them voted against it. They cited several concerns, including rerouting aid for student support personnel for things like bulletproof glass, as well as a rule in the bill allowing schools to suspend kids for up to three days who have posed threats.
“I really don’t think we can be having this conversation about school safety and the hardening of our schools without being really direct about what we are hardening our schools against. And it is guns. And it is guns that can hurt a lot of young people really quickly,” said Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura, DFL-Minneapolis.
So far, the needle hasn’t moved on Republican support for an assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazine ban.
No House Republicans at a press conference for the safe school bill on Tuesday explicitly gave their stance on gun control when asked repeatedly whether they’d support it. Instead, they reverted to the fact that safe schools are what lawmakers can agree on.
Rep. Peggy Bennett, R-Albert Lea, co-chair of the House Education Policy Committee, said she keeps hearing “we should give this for that and so on.”
“These are areas where we find agreement. We should be acting. That’s what people want us to do in the Legislature,” Bennett said. “Act on things where we find agreement, instead of digging in our heels on both sides and saying, ‘We’re not going to do this until you do that.’ How about we find the areas where we can agree?”
Mary Murphy / Forum News Service
There have been several DFL efforts throughout the session to advance gun control. Early in the session, the House held hearings on the assault weapons and high-capacity magazines ban, with
Annunciation families and students testifying in support.
Those bills were voted down in committee along party lines.
The gun control bills have
but haven’t gone up for a floor vote yet. It’s not clear whether the Senate DFL would have enough votes to pass it off the floor.
On March 26, House Democrats
attempted to advance the gun control measures
to the House floor but saw no Republican votes to do so.
The following day, Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, who authors the high-capacity magazine ban, said he has spoken with at least five Republicans who have expressed interest in his bill. He said those Republicans haven’t promised him votes, but noted that they are “surprising Republicans” people wouldn’t expect.
“It’s really important to understand that … the will and the want to do it is there. We just need people to push the right button,” Tabke said. “They’re out there.”
House DFL Leader Zack Stephenson of Coon Rapids has said he thinks the DFL may need to win big in 2026 to pass
“Accountability is coming, because we have an election in not too many months, and this will absolutely be an issue in the fall election. And it’s not a winning strategy in an election to vote against 80% of your constituents,” Stephenson said on March 27, after another failed push for gun control.
It’s not clear what 80% Stephenson is specifically referring to. But a September 2025
statewide poll of 800 Minnesota voters
from Everytown Research, a gun violence prevention nonprofit, found that 61% support a state-level ban on assault weapons and 64% support banning high-capacity magazines.
Maddie Mullikin / Forum News Service
Gov. Tim Walz spoke to reporters outside one of the first closed-door leadership meetings on Tuesday. It’s possible that Walz and Democrats could trade a Republican priority — tax breaks or fraud-fighting measures — in exchange for DFL measures on gun control or ICE-related priorities.
But the optics of this session are different than the last. Since it isn’t a budget year, lawmakers and Walz aren’t as chained to the negotiating table, with nothing that they are statutorily required to get done by the May 18 adjournment.
Mary Murphy joined Forum Communications in October 2024 as the Minnesota State Correspondent. She can be reached by email at mmurphy@forumcomm.com.
