Minnesota law isn’t as restrictive on gun data as former legislator says
In an Aug. 7 commentary (“Gun violence: Minnesota, like the U.S., suppresses data,”) former legislator Wes Skoglund claims that the Minnesota Department of Health is prohibited by state law from collecting and analyzing shooting data.
However, the law, which Skoglund cites directly in his column, only prohibits the collection of data by the Minnesota Department of Health on individuals related to lawful gun ownership and permit-to-carry information.
The Minnesota Department of Public Safety publishes an annual permit-to-carry report outlining the numbers of permits issued, applied for, denied, suspended and revoked — along with information on self-defense and crimes committed by permit holders.
The existing law was put into place to protect law-abiding gun owners from precisely the sort of attacks we are now seeing in other states — and politically motivated research that tries to reach a foregone conclusion.
The author claims that collecting information about “deliberate, accidental, haphazard or suicidal shootings” by the Minnesota Department of Health is illegal. Yet, one can visit the department’s website today and see information on suicides, firearm injuries and homicides involving firearms. Similar information is available on a national level on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
BRYAN STRAWSER, ST. PAUL
The writer is chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus.
Read online at: http://www.startribune.com/readers-writ ... 531041112/