I've never stolen so much as a candy bar.
I don't say that as some kind of proud flex - to paraphrase Chris Rock, no, I don't think I deserve a cookie for that, because stealing is one of those things you're not supposed to do.
But it helps to set up the juxtaposition for the fact that I've never actually been to court for anything ever (skipping past a drive-by through the family law system) - because I've got a record so clean, my lawyer called me an "overgrown Boy Scout". I had expired tabs 20 years ago. That's it.
And I'm going to court to keep it that way.
Last year, just before the election, the city of Saint Paul, where I live, passed an "Assault Weapons Ban". It's a ban on...well, whatever an "assault weapon" is. They'll get back to us on that.
The largely symbolic move comes after the August shooting at Annunciation Church and School that killed two children and injured 28 others in Minneapolis. Efforts toward a special legislative session focused on the shooting have stymied, leading St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and other municipal leaders to push for a pathway to pass their own laws.
“This is so far from the best route to go. The best route would be for Congress to realize that we have a gun violence crisis in America and to take action,” Mayor Carter told MPR News host Nina Moini on Wednesday. “But if they’re not going to, we have to be willing to do something.”
Of course, not only does it violate the Second Amendment as clarified in the Heller, McDonald, and Bruen decisions, it violates Minnesota state law:
Minnesota is among 42 states that have preemption laws preventing municipal gun restrictions, according to Everytown. The gun safety nonprofit says the laws became commonplace in the 1980s, after backlash to an Illinois city’s decision to ban handguns.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and the leaders of several Minnesota cities are calling on the state to drop its preemption law. Those leaders include the mayors of Minneapolis, Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Richfield, Rochester, Stillwater and Shoreview.
And the city knows it's unenforceable:
Minnesota is among 42 states that have preemption laws preventing municipal gun restrictions, according to Everytown. The gun safety nonprofit says the laws became commonplace in the 1980s, after backlash to an Illinois city’s decision to ban handguns.
St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and the leaders of several Minnesota cities are calling on the state to drop its preemption law. Those leaders include the mayors of Minneapolis, Bloomington, Brooklyn Center, Hopkins, Minnetonka, Richfield, Rochester, Stillwater and Shoreview.
The problem isn't just that is violates state law and the Constitution; it's that it casts a vague, broad net of places where law-abiding citizens with carry permits won't be allowed to carry, making them inadvertent criminals for doing something that may well be perfectly legal across the street - something that is a protected civil liberty while we're on the subject.
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, the state's premier gun rights group (full disclosure: I'm a contributor and have been a volunteer for the Caucus for years), filed suit against the city and the ordinance-in-limbo:
“The Saint Paul City Council passed an ordinance that exceeds the lawful authority granted to municipalities under Minnesota law,” said Rob Doar, President of the Minnesota Gun Owners Law Center.
“When a city adopts criminal regulations beyond its delegated powers, it not only acts unlawfully but also directly harms our members’ rights. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus made every effort to encourage the Council to comply with state law, but their refusal to do so left us no choice but to seek judicial intervention.”
“This illegal ordinance will immediately have a chilling effect on peaceable gun owners in our capital city,” added Bryan Strawser, Chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “It’s unfortunate that the City Council and Mayor have chosen to waste taxpayer dollars defending a performative ordinance that clearly violates state law.”
And for the first time in my life, I'm involved in a court case. I'm signed on as a co-plaintiff in the Caucus's litigation against the City.
Because I've done a pretty good job of being and staying on the right side of the law my whole life, and I'm not about to let the city council screw that up for me.
