opinion

Im a strong advocate of the 2nd amendment and have no problem with mandatory background checks if they keep firearms out of the hands of the freaks in society that are prone to violence.

"Im a strong advocate of the 2nd amendment and have no problem with mandatory background checks if they keep firearms out of the hands of the freaks in society that are prone to violence" ...................... Indeed. Owatonnabill has no issue at all with better enforcement of current laws. But the Jared Laughners and the Adam Lanzas of this country, even though they get tons of publicity, are actually very small drops in a very large bucket. Nearly 450 people were died by gunfire in Chicago alone last year--far outstripping even the number of American military deaths in Afghanistan during the same time-period--and the overwhelming majority of these deaths were gang-related. Start factoring in similar shootings in towns like DC, Cleveland, L.A., etc. etc. and the problem comes into sharper perspective. Jared Laughner and Adam Lanza were notorious nutcases, but the over-10,000 gun-related deaths per year in America aren't caused by nutcases. Overwhelmingly, they're murders of criminals BY criminals. As much as Gaby Giffords and the dead Sandy Hook kids sell newspapers, they're not truly representative of the problem, nor should they be the motivating force behind how guns are controlled in this country. You want to solve gun violence? Then address the issue where it lives. And so far, we're not doing that.

"An officer deserves to know, by the click of a computer, what kind of suspect he's dealing with."...Now that is a scary idea to me, that we should all have files on us that are acessible to law enforcement at any time.

Seems like the defenders of the 2nd amendment and gun owners are becoming so paranoid that they are refusing to see the "trees for the forest". They evidently want NO control for fear they could not have their toys.

I'm disgusted with our lib. democrats using fear tactics mis-information and outright lie to us to get their gun ban agenda past. If you think they aren't trying to take them all then just check our HF 241 that Dayton and Obama are trying to run past us. It makes NY look good. After reading this bill I was in shock and I'm not even a gun owner. These people have no respect for the Constitution, their oath of office or the honest citizens of Minnesota. The 2nd amendment is the law of the land and has to be obeyed by the Democrats as well as anyone. Their gun ban will have no effect on crime nor will it stop some nut job from doing the same thing again. They don't seam to care about protecting the children, its just banning guns they don't like and had nothing to do with the shooting. But they tried real hard to make us think an assault weapon was used, a lie. And what is an assault gun anyway? I wonder why our government is flying over our cities in gun ships while fully armed military like men our running through our neighborhoods with real full auto weapons training. For what? Why has DHS just purchased 1.8 Billion rounds of hollow point ammo? This stuff is illegal under international law for military. They also picked up 7000 new full auto personal machineguns, What for? How dose anyone with the capability of rational thought escape the conclusion that our government is preparing for war on its own people? And now they want to disarm us, give me a brake. I think its time I go out and buy one, to protect my family...Call me paranoid because I am...

It's obvious that Oberender, a convicted murder, should have had his name on every appropriate list to keep him from legally acquiring guns. All that was necessary was for bureaucrats to do their jobs.

That Oberndorfer (or whatever the name is) did NOT obtain his firearms legally, and he ddi NOT "fall through the cracks" of the NICS Federal background check system. Someone at the COUNTY level flat-out failed to do their job by not verifying that he was who he said he was. He switched his first and middle names on the application(s) -- and whoever handled the paperwork FAILED to verify the information against his state-issued PICTURE I.D. CARD. I know how the process works, because I have gone through it, and I had to prove that I am legally allowed to possess firearms -- and I am aware that there is a huge fine and prison time attached to ANY willful deception such as what Oberdorfer (or whatever the name is) decided to do. There is no hole in the "gun-check system".