Minnesota governor signs gun safety measures: red flag law, expanded background checks

Gabby Giffords — a former Democratic congresswoman who became a gun safety campaigner after she was shot in the head in 2011 in Tucson, Arizona — gave a short speech to the cheering crowd at the ceremony. Democrat, Republican, independent — we must never stop fight!”AdvertisementMoments later, Walz signed a broad public safety bill that included the two gun measures: a “red flag law” and expanded background checks for gun transfers. The red flag law allows authorities to ask courts for “extreme risk protection orders” to temporarily take guns away from people deemed to be an imminent threat to others or themselves. The gun safety measures by themselves would have been a tough vote for several rural Democrats in the Senate. But putting the measures in the final broader public safety bill may have given them enough political cover to vote yes last week.