Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is on his way out of politics after he declared he would not seek re-election, but he won’t make his exit without destroying the gun rights of his constituents.
Today I’m proposing a ban on assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, binary triggers, firearms without serial numbers, and more. pic.twitter.com/8LehHnGhmV
— Governor Tim Walz (@GovTimWalz) February 24, 2026
The one Vice Presidential candidate has begun a push for the state legislature to pass a ban on “assault weapons,” “high capacity magazines,” and “ghost guns,” among a slew of other policies to complicate firearms ownership and restrict access for otherwise law-abiding individuals in his state.
His proposal largely forgoes on laying out specifics, but based on similar legislation advanced by Democrats in the once-great state of Virginia, you could likely expect a ban on semi-automatic rifles with a pistol grip. If they were to take a leaf out of Connecticut's book, it could get much worse.
The ban on so-called “high-capacity” magazines might be the most perverse. They, of course, want to restrict gun-owners to low-capacity, 10 round magazines, all while claiming that the most prevalent 30 round magazines need to go for public safety. As conservatives have argued time and time again, this is simply an attempt to disarm the good guys. Someone bent on destruction could easily alter a limited capacity magazine to fit 30 rounds, go to any one of the neighboring states to buy as many as they like, or just buy one of the hundreds of thousands likely in the state under the table. Look no further than every weekend in Chicago for evidence of that.
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And despite supposedly jumping onto the side of the Second Amendment in the wake of the Alex Pretti shooting, the magazine restriction proposal from Walz would have made Pretti a criminal. So much for that short-lived stunt.
Another angle of attack is on “guns without serial numbers” that can be bought and assembled without undergoing a background check, which Walz claims allows gun owners to “evade regulations.” This is a slightly more complicated issue, but I'll provide a very rudimentary explanation.
What he is referring to is how limited the definition of a “firearm” is. It’s very common for someone to purchase a complete lower receiver for an AR platform firearm, which is serialized and requires a background check if purchased through a licensed dealer, and combine it with a complete upper receiver, which can be shipped directly to your door as it is not actually a firearm. An unfinished “80 percent” lower receiver (other percentages of finish exist as well) can also be purchased and shipped to your home, and finished and assembled without undergoing a background check. The item does not require serialization, because it isn’t classified as a firearm, and is completely legal to do in Minnesota.
Walz considers this a loophole, which is a gross mischaracterization. The intent was always for citizens to have the ability to manufacture firearms for their own personal use.
Walz has also promoted a number of other roadblocks to firearms possession and roadblocks to ownership, including a heavy tax hike for firearms and ammo, and end to campus carry, mandatory “firearm insurance” for owners, and the ability to sue firearms manufacturers. The last is particularly nefarious, as it is what caused the American firearms-giant Remington to go bust over wrongful-death claims.
The knee-jerk reaction from many on the Right will be to claim that the weapons that Walz seeks to strip from his citizens are no more effective than any other weapon, or that these aren’t “weapons of war” as many on the Left like to call them. We shouldn’t ignore the truth. These are very clearly the most effective firearms that law-abiding, patriotic American citizens can readily obtain. Blake Masters put out a particularly good campaign ad highlighting this when he was running for office in Arizona.
The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting. pic.twitter.com/aOgpljZ0P8
— Blake Masters (@bgmasters) November 12, 2021
And that’s exactly why the Left wants to take them away.
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