Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher is the rare official who has been consistently candid about the security needs at the Capitol.
Aug 3, 2025, 12:30 PM
It’s time to stop catering to the gun soreheads
Since the politically-motivated assassinations of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark, and the attempted assassination of Senator John Hoffman, his wife Yvette, and their daughter, and wounding of John and Yvette, the issue of security at the Capitol has arisen again. Rochelle Olson, a columnist at the Minnesota Star Tribune, has an op-ed today with her solution:
No weapons in the Capitol, metal detectors at entrances, and limit the number of entrances for the public.
One would think this was a complete no-brainer, but it isn’t. Twelve years ago there was a hearing about banning weapons at the Capitol, held in the large, circular hearing room under the Rotunda. The room was populated by several persons opposed to weapons bans, and by the looks of them, they didn’t appear to be people who showed up at the Capitol a lot. I took some video; you can judge for yourself.
Perhaps obviously, the Legislature did not ban guns as a result of this hearing.
The audio was weak and not nearly as arresting as the video action, so I substituted a clip by the Beauhunks, Good Old Days, from the Spanky and Our Gang series. I think it’s perfect.
The video opens with a smirking Kris Kranz, leaning against an entrance to the hearing room, brandishing — and I use that term intentionally — a pistol on his hip. Kranz was a familiar figure at conservative events like the Tea Party rallies, usually dressed in black with a pistol prominently on his hip.
In the video, Andrew Rothman, another outspoken member of the gun owners group, perhaps noticing that I was taking video, gets up and goes around the back of the room and advises Kranz that his performative gun display was not a good look. Kranz retreats to the back of the room and Rothman resumes his seat.
Later, there is a brief clip of witnesses opposed to weapons in the Capitol; Rothman, Rep. Tony Cornish, Rob Doar, and Joe Olson sat behind these witnesses smirking and making faces. One of the principal points that the witnesses opposed to weapons in the Capitol were making was that their presence — and obviously the yobs carrying them — were intimidating.
I offer this video as Exhibit A for their case.
Here’s a quote from the Olson piece:
“As it is right now, a person could carry a couple automatic weapons with extra magazines in a bag into any entrance of the Capitol and walk to the gallery,” he said, referring to the public seating areas overlooking the House and Senate chambers. “That’s not a way to run government, where people have to be in fear of who’s bringing weapons in.”
But Jacobson, our public safety commissioner, wouldn’t take a position himself. Instead, he told us to save the date Aug. 20 for a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Capitol Security, the panel chaired by Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan.
Unless the DFL gets another trifecta, and maybe not even then, weapons are not going to be banned at the Capitol, and there won’t be metal detectors. But there will be scowling people in maroon shirts, and maybe even Kris Kranz displaying a gun on his jutting hip, at the hearing.
If you are opposed to weapons in the Capitol, the seat of government in Minnesota, maybe you should go, too, or at least prepare a comment to the committee.
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