Minnesota DFL lawmakers stage overnight sit-in after gun reform bill blocked from House floor vote
After a motion to bring the Minnesota Senate's gun reform bill to the House floor for a vote was defeated along party lines Thursday, following nearly six hours of debate, some DFL lawmakers staged a sit-in overnight inside the House chambers in protest.
"Whether we gavel back in on Saturday or this body hides out until Sunday, we will be here undeterred," said Rep. Liish Kozlowski, DFL-Duluth.
Earlier this month, the bill passed the Senate by one vote, on party lines, with DFL senators in favor. It includes a ban on semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines. It's an effort backed by some families from Annunciation Catholic School.
Just last summer, two students were killed and dozens of others were injured during a shooting at a back-to-school mass.
Supporters of the bill accuse Republican House Speaker Lisa Demuth of holding it up. But on Thursday, she said gun control legislation failed to gain enough support in the divided House earlier this session in committee.
"Those bills did not continue going through the committee process because they fell on a party-line vote in the committees," Demuth said. "What has gone through, which is part of the package, is the anonymous threat reporting, and that is important for families across the state. The mental health supports."
Earlier this week, a spokesperson for the GOP said Demuth would not prevent a floor vote if the bill completed the House Committee process.
In 2018, then-state Rep. Erin Maye Quade led a 24-hour sit-in over gun legislation. University of Minnesota political professor Larry Jacobs says the demonstration that began Thursday night is different and pressure isn't only coming from politicians.
"This is a whole new ballgame in which you've got parents whose children were killed standing there saying, 'Let's not make this a continuation of random violence and make this a moment where we make a change,'" Jacobs said.
He added that if a vote happens, it could come with major political risk for Republicans if they vote against their party.
"That rep would have to consider this vote decision to be possibly the end of their political career," Jacobs said.
Video discredits Republican accusations about DFL vitriol
A GOP state representative accused one of his DFL colleagues of telling another Republican to "go f***ing kill himself" during the heated debate over gun laws, but multiple videos of the exchange don't support the claim.
Rep. Drew Roach, a Republican representing an area south of the Twin Cities metro, accused DFL Rep. Aisha Gomez of hurling the phrase at GOP Rep. Elliott Engen.
Roach posted video of the confrontation on X, most of which is indecipherable due to crosstalk.
In the clearest part of the video, Gomez is heard yelling, "Think of them, not yourself, how about that?" Another person can be heard saying "f***ing cowards."
House Democrats shared another video, taken closer to the exchange, elucidating the phrase, and a statement from Gomez called the accusation "a total fabrication of my actual words."
Republicans, though, are sticking by their story, calling on Gov. Tim Walz to condemn Gomez, and House DFL leader Rep. Zack Stephenson to remove her as tax chair. Engen himself said on X he "can confirm" the incident, and escalated by saying "multiple Democrat colleagues" yelled the phrase at him.
Leaders from both sides responded to the dispute on Friday.
"There is a responsibility and level of respect that needs to be shown within the chamber and work we do," Demuth said. "That's not what we saw."
"The video evidence of what happened last night is very clear that there was no violent rhetoric from Gomez," Stephenson said. "And there's no reason to remove her from the committee, and frankly, it's a distraction."
The CBS News Confirmed team analyzed all of the video obtained from the incident and has yet to be able to confirm that the accusation from Engen is exactly what was said.
