The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

April 18, 2007

Deadly force bill forwarded

Cornish to drop attempts for direct vote

MANKATO — State Rep. Tony Cornish has negotiated what he calls a “major coup” on a bill to expand the rights of property owners to use deadly force against intruders.

House leaders have agreed to give his bill a committee hearing — a move they’ve resisted until now — but Cornish and his supporters will have to wait until next year. And Cornish says Democrats have promised “no skullduggery or shenanigans.”

The agreement came after Cornish, R-Vernon Center, tried to force a floor vote with a series of rarely used procedural moves.

The bill would allow homeowners to use deadly force on intruders because they can be assumed to intend to harm the homeowner. Attorneys can challenge that presumption in court, but Cornish’s bill would put the burden of proof on the perpetrator.

The bill, called Castle Doctrine or Stand Your Ground, needed to go through the public safety committee, chaired by Rep. Joe Mullery, a Minneapolis Democrat. But Mullery didn’t give the legislation a hearing, a move that would typically kill its chances of becoming law.

Cornish, however, didn’t let it die, instead beginning a series of moves that could bring the bill directly to a floor vote. He was progressing toward that goal when, last week, Mullery and House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher met with him to work out a deal.

Both sides agreed that a committee hearing would be better for the bill.

“What he’d be looking for would be irresponsible,” Mullery said of Cornish’s move to bring the bill to a House vote.

A committee hearing, Mullery said Cornish agreed, allows time for public input and expert testimony, rather than an uninformed floor vote.

And Cornish calls the current system “totally unfair” because it allows a committee chairman to kill a bill.

The two-term legislator called the deal a “coup” because Mullery had refused to give the bill a chance. Cornish said Democrats caved to popular pressure and a fear that the bill would pass a floor vote, but Mullery denied that.

Cornish also credited gun owners’ rights groups with sending hundreds of e-mails requesting the bill receive a hearing.

John Caile, communications director for the Gun Owners Civil Rights Alliance, said the organization has 40,000 people on its mailing list.

He had a mixed reaction to the deal.

“To be perfectly honest, since it’s not a monumental change, my statement would be we would have preferred to have heard it this year,” Caile said, but added that “hearing it at all is better than not hearing it.”

The bill faced opposition from state law enforcement agencies, so Cornish will spend the next year retooling the legislation to gain their support.

“What I have to convince them of is that there’s a presumption in the bill that if somebody enters a house by stealth, then you can assume they’re doing harm,” he said.

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