As the Minnesota Legislature takes steps to protect members of the House and Senate following the Saturday shooting of two state lawmakers and their spouses at their homes, long-discussed security measures at the state Capitol figure to see renewed interest.
Lawmakers’ home addresses have been removed from the Minnesota Legislature’s website, and the Capitol saw a larger security presence than usual Monday. That’s on top of a longstanding 24-hour law enforcement presence, according to Kyle Everson, a spokesperson with the Minnesota State Patrol.
For many years, elected officials have called for greater security measures at the Minnesota Capitol, such as entry checkpoints with metal detectors and X-ray machines. Minnesota was one of 13 states to forgo those measures, according to a Council of State Governments review conducted in 2021, following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Lawmakers might act with more urgency to beef up security at the Capitol after Saturday’s shootings, which killed former House Speaker Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, and her husband, Mark, and injured Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, and his wife, Yvette. The alleged gunman visited the homes of two additional lawmakers that same night and had notebooks naming dozens more targets, federal prosecutors said Monday.
“I think everybody at the Capitol is ready to look at this in a serious manner,” said Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, who has served in the state Legislature since the 1980s. “The idea of metal detectors and banning guns at the Capitol, I think it’s coming.”
Marty supports new security measures but also has backed legislation to ban the carrying of firearms in the state Capitol, something he says has met fierce resistance from gun rights groups and some GOP lawmakers. Some Republican members of the Legislature have carried guns on the House and Senate floors in the past, citing concerns over personal safety.
One building on the state Capitol complex already has metal detectors and bans weapons: the Minnesota Judicial Center, which houses the state Supreme Court.
“I’m hoping, at a minimum, we will start next year off by banning guns in the Capitol complex, like we do in other courthouses,” Marty said. “I think the overwhelming majority would say, yeah, if they do it in courthouses, why shouldn’t they be doing it at the Capitol?”
Committee interested
Security took the spotlight at the state Capitol earlier this year after Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher submitted a letter to the Advisory Committee on Capitol Area Security requesting new measures, including metal detectors, X-ray machines, stationary guards and bag checks at entrances.
“The United States has become more politically polarized than it has been in decades,” he wrote to lawmakers. “Moreover, the willingness for certain actors to resort to political violence, threats, and intimidation to those who have different values and beliefs is clearly on the rise.”
Members of the bipartisan advisory committee said they were committed to working to ensure greater safety at the Capitol after the lawmaker shootings, though for now they aren’t publicly advocating any specific measures.
“This horrific act of political violence highlights the vital importance of our continued diligence to ensure that members of the legislature, staff, those that work in State Government, and the public are safe within the walls of the State Capitol and around the Capitol complex,” they said in a Monday statement.
Lawmakers on the committee include Rep. Kelly Moller, DFL-Shoreview; Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia; Sen. Bonnie Westlin, DFL-Plymouth; and Sen. Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove.
States take action
Former Senate Republican Majority Leader Paul Gazelka, who served in the Senate until 2022, said it’s time for the state to increase Capitol security measures amid rising political violence, which he said became a bigger problem toward the end of his nearly 20 years in the Legislature.
“Hortman and I talked about threats that we and others were receiving,” he said.
Gazelka, a northern Minnesota Senator who started carrying a gun at the Capitol after protesters forced their way into the Senate Office building in 2020 following the murder of George Floyd, said he thinks the Capitol still can be accessible to the public with added security measures.
“I just don’t think there’s any harm in bringing people through one gate for security,” he said. “You have multiple doors. I don’t have a problem with that. I just think you have to begin to think about the fact that people are far more aggressive.”
Since Saturday’s shootings, some neighboring states have moved quickly to boost lawmaker safety. Wisconsin State Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, a Republican, has requested added security ahead of a floor session Wednesday, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported. And in North Dakota, lawmakers’ home addresses were removed from the Legislature’s website.
Members of Minnesota’s Congressional delegation could see added security as well. U.S. Sen. Tina Smith, who reportedly was on a list of politicians alleged 57-year-old shooter Vance Luther Boelter hoped to target, was considering a regular private security detail, according to the Associated Press.
Related Articles
Prosecutors: Assassin suspect in shooting of two Minnesota state lawmakers planned to target two others
‘Dad went to war’: Vance Boelter tried three lawmaker homes before killing Melissa Hortman and husband, charges say
Charges: Man who shot MN legislators announced himself as officer
Friends say Minnesota shooting suspect was deeply religious and conservative
A teenager with a job making burritos became a powerful Minnesota lawmaker who trained service dogs
Leave a Reply