Minnesota House approves 1 gun bill, tables 2 others

(KSTP) – State lawmakers have advanced one piece of gun legislation and tabled two others following a gun owners’ rally at the Capitol over the weekend.

On Monday, the Minnesota House of Representatives approved a bill that requires gun owners to report a lost or stolen gun to law enforcement within 48 hours of discovering that it’s missing. It now heads to the Minnesota Senate.

The legislation would make it a petty misdemeanor for failing to promptly report a missing or stolen gun, a misdemeanor for a second offense and a gross misdemeanor for all additional violations. Petty misdemeanors in Minnesota are punishable by a fine of up to $300; misdemeanors carry up to 90 days in jail and a fine of up to $1,000; and gross misdemeanors have a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $3,000 fine.

House officials say 14 other states and the District of Columbia have similar laws and hope it will cut down on gun trafficking by more quickly recovering missing guns.

Related: Minnesota House lawmakers push to lessen gun violence

It comes after the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus and a few Republican state lawmakers rallied against three gun bills at the Minnesota Capitol on Saturday, with the groups arguing that the bills are overreaching.

While the House approved the prompt reporting bill, lawmakers laid on the table two others that they considered Monday instead of advancing them to the Senate. However, they could still be included in an omnibus bill before the end of the session. One of those bills would add safe storage requirements for gun owners while the other aims to increase penalties for “straw purchasing.”