Issue Position: Public Safety

Issue Position

Promote Safe Neighborhoods

Now is the time to pass laws that will reduce gun violence and promote safe communities.

Reducing Gun Violence

In Minnesota, only buyers purchasing from a federally licensed gun store are required to undergo background check. People buying guns at gun shows, garage sales, and online are free to do so without any steps being taken to determine whether they have a criminal history.

I support state legislation that would close this loophole and would require a background check for anyone buying a gun in Minnesota -- no matter where they try to buy the gun.

I support legislation to get assault weapons and high-capacity magazines out of circulation and cracking down on "straw purchasing" of large numbers of guns. The recent spike in gun cases illustrates the high cost of there being no limits on the number of handguns that may be purchased at once [Gun cases jump 40% in Minneapolis in 2013]. I support legislation to limit the number of guns one buyer may purchase at a time.

Neighborhood Safety Programs and Responsive Policing

Dr. Martin Luther King said, 'True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.'

Public safety is not merely the absence of violence, it is the presence of a concerned and cooperative community. In addition to working at the state level to reduce the number of firearms on our streets, I will work with neighborhood associations and my colleagues in Minneapolis city government to support communities' grassroots efforts to foster safe neighborhoods.

I pledge to seek additional funds from the State Legislature to provide Minneapolis with the resources it needs to strengthen community-oriented policing programs, increase support for after-school programs and programs to identify and intervene with at-risk youths, and recruit more officers of color.

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