"There are eight other states that have
transportation of firearms laws similar to
Minnesota’s. Those states are Illinois, Iowa,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey,
Wisconsin, and Hawaii"

So, only eight other states with a requirement to place the gun in a case.

So, what do these states have in common and which other list would you put them on?

Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Hawaii

Oh yeah, Severely restricted RKBA and very ANTI-gun in general. hmmm... Are we in good company or not?

Thinking further about this, I see the current law as one in a long series of failed attempts at controlling hunter behavior.

I have hunted in Minnesota since the late 1970s.

Since long before the 1970s, there has been a tradition of road hunting for grouse. Most people who I knew who engaged in such hunting would ride in a car or truck holding a cased but unzipped shotgun, with cartridges near at hand. Doubles were favored for this because they are quick to load and unload. When game was observed and the absence of conservation officers noted, it was possible to exit the vehicle and get a shot off quickly.

In that day and age, the practical limit on road hunting was the fact that many roads suitable for grouse hunting were not passable to most cars. There were relatively few 4x4 trucks, SUVs were first being made, and so you had to have a Jeep, which were expensive and created logistics problems since they were awful everyday cars back then.

Now that people drive SUVs and pull 4-wheelers around on trailers, road hunting is much more of a problem. With a 4 wheeler you can get through almost any road that is passable to foot traffic. And the traditional hunters, who mostly hunt on foot, can't find game because road hunting is so effective. So at the DNR's insistence we have the new law (five or ten years old now) that you can't fire a shot within 25 yards of a car or ATV. And guess what? With the nonexistent enforcement, it has made absolutely no difference, except that the guys who hunt from ATVs are a little more careful about firing a shot within sight of witnesses or a paved road.

The latest effort is to close more roads to ATVs. We'll see, but I don't think that there is enough density of conservation officers for that to work much better than the other laws.

Much of the problem is the relative shortage of game. It was easy to be a good sportsman in 1951, because there was an abundance of game such that people who played by the rules could shoot what they wanted to shoot without much effort. There was enough game to go around for everybody as long as some very basic, easy to enforce rules were followed -- the duration of the open season and the bag and possession limits. People who violated these rules were reviled by the hunting community, in general, and enforcement was straightforward. Hard to bluff your way out of a ticket if you have a pheasant in your game pocket and a shotgun in your hand the week before the season opens.

The number of hunters has increased and the land available for hunting has shrunk, so here were are, and there's more of an effort to control hunter behavior at the same time that hunters have a much greater motivation to break the rules, because they're not getting game the traditional ways (Same thing is going on with fishing, but it's not germane to this conversation). Thus the plethora of new restrictions: on baiting (real or perceived), shooting within 25 yards of an ATV, closed areas for ATVs, new requirements for orange clothing, larger number of licenses (e.g. pheasant stamp), and increased fees to fund increased enforcement.

So, what to do. I don't think legislating firearms safety is going to be any more effective than legislating, say, woodworking safety. And I don't think the DNR's recently constructed and backdated notion of "fair chase" has much widespread appeal. Therefore, I believe the laws should focus on those genuine public safety risks that do exist, and get the DNR to throw out their new "creative" regulations and focus on basic tools like season length and bag limits.

"A person who may legally possess a firearm may transport a firearm in a motor vehicle without the firearm being encased, unloaded, or in the trunk of the vehicle unless prohibited under section 97B.081 or 97B.086. "

I'll bet that could be twisted into meaning that it doesn't have to be encased if it's unloaded or in the trunk...

That part is specifically struck out:

See, this is what I get for relying on the strib for facts.

Well, especially gun facts.

Saying the this law will greatly increase the incidence of road hunting is like saying that blood will run in the streets if you allow people to carry handguns.

If it is illegal to road hunt, law abiding citizens will not.
Will some people yield to the temptation and road hunt? Probably.
We hope that those breaking the law will get caught.

What more is there to be said?

+1 Criminals don't obey laws any way, and stupid folks may breaks less laws if they accidently shoot theirselfs' now. But what the hell ever, let the unfit bleach their own gene pool.

Yeah, I got that "It'll be like the Wild West" crapola from two coworkers the other day.

One guy said that with his temper he'd probably shoot someone. I told him he shouldn't own a firearm, let alone carry one. Oddly, he just got married (I think there's a member of the female species of woman involved) and is having a kid, so he asked me for advice on a gun for home protection. I found a rubber band shooter in a catalog and cut the ad out for him. I told him to use light loads.

I got this response from Tony Cornish on the bill.

Dill's Cmte. Subdivision Game and Fish

Watch for it.

Please come and bring friends

Tony


I guess that means watch for when it will be on the floor for debate? And go to the capital that day to show support?

Is that how this works?

ok, Tony got back to me again with this:

I believe the first hearing will be a week from this Monday. Here in the State Office Bldg.

Tony

Anybody wanna go?

I would like to get more involved and go, but I am going to be out of state that week

I have limited time on Mondays in general, but depending on what time I may be able to be there.


MM

He's gonna give me a time when he knows more next week.