Minnesota Bill Greenlights 5-Year Gun Seizures Without Conviction

Minnesota Democrats are pushing to supercharge the state's red flag law, and the proposed changes expose every gun owner in the state to a years-long confiscation order based on nothing more than an accusation.

The bill moving through the Legislature would extend extreme risk protection orders from one year to five, authorize any rank-and-file officer — not just chiefs and sheriffs — to file confiscation petitions on the spot, and require judges to consider emergency seizures after hours, on weekends, and on holidays. No waiting period, no cooling-off window, nothing standing between a bureaucrat's accusation and your empty gun safe.

The NRA called it exactly what it is in a letter to a Minnesota Senate committee last week: a "gun confiscation" scheme. The numbers back that up. Courts granted these orders in 96% of cases in Minnesota — meaning a judge almost never says no once a petition lands on the desk.

Petitions more than doubled, from 138 in 2024 to 314 in 2025. Richfield Police Chief Jay Henthorne celebrated the surge, calling the law "a tool that's being successful." Successful at what, Chief — stripping citizens of constitutional rights without a criminal charge?

The bill also quietly guts the existing requirement that law enforcement reimburse gun owners fair market value for seized firearms. Your property gets taken, and now police departments want to dodge paying for it. That is not reform — that is the government stealing from you twice.

Rep. Cedrick Frazier, DFL-New Hope, called this "legislation that has saved many lives." What he will not tell you is how many innocent Minnesotans lost their Second Amendment rights based on an accusation alone — no criminal record, no conviction, no meaningful opportunity to defend themselves before the order was signed.

The bill cleared a full House committee with what supporters are spinning as "bipartisan support" — in a chamber split 67-67, where Democrats need just one Republican to break ranks. That is not consensus. That is leverage.

Minnesota gun owners: contact your state representative and senator today. Five-year confiscation orders issued over a weekend by a beat cop are not public safety — they are a blueprint for abuse.