A little less than a year ago, an armed felon opened fire on law enforcement, killing two officers and an EMT. He was a convicted felon who couldn’t have a gun at all.

It was later learned that his girlfriend purchased the firearm for him.

Of course, while the killer was dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound and could be assumed guilty, she was still alive, which means her guilt needed to be established somehow.

Well, now it has as she’s entered a guilty plea in court.

The girlfriend of [the killer], the man accused of shooting and killing three Burnsville first responders in February, entered a guilty plea on Tuesday for straw purchasing firearms. 

…

What we know:

Ashley Anne Dyrdahl, [his] girlfriend, was federally indicted in March 2024 on five counts of straw purchasing, one count of conspiracy, and five counts of making false statements during the purchase of a firearm. 

Authorities allege Dyrdahl bought several firearms for [him], including the two AR-15s that were used in the fatal shooting. 

What’s new:

Dyrdahl appeared in court on Tuesday and pleaded guilty to two counts of straw purchasing, specifically for the Franklin Armory FAI-15 firearm and the Palmetto State Armory PA-15 firearm. 

Her sentencing will be scheduled for a later date. 

Apparently, the bad guy would text Dyrdahl what kind of guns he wanted, then she’d show up at the store to purchase them. That makes it hard for a gun store to determine that a straw buy is underway. 

Now, let’s understand that Minnesota has extensive gun control laws on the books and had them well before this shooting took place. Absolutely none of them did anything to stop Dyrdahl from walking into a gun store and buying a firearm for someone she knew was a convicted felon. What she did was illegal as hell, but those laws didn’t stop her.

So tell me how more laws will actually stop people like her from arming felons while doing nothing to infringe on our right to keep and bear arms.

Explain to us all how you can respect our right to own guns while passing just a few laws that will somehow magically disarm the bad guys. 

They’re not buying guns lawfully. They’re breaking those laws at every opportunity. Straw buys are illegal, yet Dyrdahl committed them anyway. The killer couldn’t have a gun, but he had them.

Throughout the nation, convicted felons get guns left and right. Usually, they’re stolen, but some are straw buys or they’re obtained via some other means.

New laws won’t stop them.

The best way to stop them is to undermine the demand for those illicit guns in the first place, which is where anti-gunners keep losing the plot. 

Editor’s Note: I’d add that if we want those laws that are already on the books to have a deterrent effect, they need to come with actual consequences. We don’t know what sort of penalty Drydahl will receive for her straw purchases, but under Minnesota law the maximum penalty is a $10,000 fine and a two-year prison sentence. That’s far below the potential punishment that can be doled out at the federal level, where a straw buy can result in a 10-year sentence, and seems unlikely to have much, if any, deterrent effect whatsoever. – Cam