Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has quietly retreated from his planned special session on gun control, but he continues to push for a ban on so-called assault weapons when the state legislature begins its 2026 session next February.
The odds of a gun ban bill getting through the Democrat-Farmer-Labor-controlled Senate were already fairly decent, but there are a couple of DFL senators who’d been quiet about whether or not they’d support a ban. Now one of them, a supposed moderate named Judy Seeberger, has decided to break her silence and come out in favor of a gun and magazine ban.
Seeberger has since resolved to support “whatever it takes” to make Minnesota safer.
“I’ll be yes on anything and everything that comes through that will really make a difference to reduce gun violence here in the state of Minnesota,” she said in a recent interview.
That includes full bans of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines as proposed by Walz, she said. Seeberger is scheduled to appear with Walz at a gun violence prevention town hall Monday afternoon in Stillwater.
With tight margins in both the House and Senate, legislators in the political middle, including Seeberger, wield the most power in determining whether gun control measures succeed or fail. Her newfound support for them could help tip the scales and blaze a path for other moderate Democrats to follow in next year’s legislative session.
Her position on guns will also likely be used against her by Republicans who say her positions don’t match her moderate district. Seeberger’s swing seat will be a battleground in Republicans’ quest to win back the state Senate next year.
Seeberger has previously voted in favor of “universal” background checks, a “red flag” law, and a ban on binary triggers, so I’d hardly call her a moderate when it comes to the right to keep and bear arms. Still, in 2023 Seeberger was one of three swing-district DFL state senators who indicated they wouldn’t go along with a semi-auto ban.
Sens. Rob Kupec and Grant Hauschild have continued to be noncommittal about a gun ban, with Kupec stating last month that he would “need to see specific language on a bill and what the rest of a package of bills included.”
Hauschild, meanwhile, told local media in October that he “believes that more nuanced definitions need to be established in any conversations that could result in a ban,” while declining to say if there was any version of a gun ban bill that he could support.
While the DFL will hold a one-seat majority in the 2026 session, the House is split between DFL and Republican members, which means that any gun control measure is going to need bipartisan support for passage. Republican Lisa Demuth is the current House speaker, as well as a candidate for the Republican gubernatorial nomination next year, and so far she’s not shown any support for the governor’s gun and magazine ban plans.
With Minnesota’s primary elections not taking place until next August, and the legislature expected to adjourn at the end of May, I’d say it would be an act of political suicide for Demuth to do anything that would bring a gun and magazine ban to the House floor for a vote next year. Still, Walz is making gun control a central component of his re-election bid, and I’m sure he’ll hammer Demuth over her opposition to a gun ban every chance he gets… even if Kupec and Hauschild end up opposed to a ban themselves. Walz has already tried blaming Republicans for his decision to not call for a special session after the Annunciation shooting in Minneapolis in late August, even though some DFLers quietly admitted that they didn’t have the votes to pass his semi-auto ban.
Walz could have called a special session regardless, but Demuth’s plan to increase spending on school security and mental health probably would have received enough bipartisan support to get to his desk, while his own gun control agenda would have likely floundered. Walz decided to put politics ahead of public safety and keep lawmakers at home, but he’s doing a series of scripted “town hall” events with gun control activists like Gabby Giffords to stump for gun control ahead of next year’s session. He’s managed to get at least one more DFLer to fall in line behind a gun ban, but that alone won’t be enough to secure passage of his anti-2A agenda.
Editor’s Note: After more than 40 days of screwing Americans, a few Dems have finally caved. The Schumer Shutdown was never about principle—just inflicting pain for political points.
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