Minnesota's Red Flag Law Just Got Darker—GOP Helped

The state's two-year-old red flag law was already bad. What's heading to a full floor vote is something else entirely.

Proposals advancing in both chambers would stretch Extreme Risk Protection Orders from one year to five. Judges would be required to hear confiscation requests after hours and on weekends—no waiting, no cooling off. Any law enforcement officer could file a petition on the spot, no longer just chiefs or sheriffs. And the provision requiring police to reimburse gun owners fair market value for seized firearms? Stripped. Gone.

**Your property. Taken. No check.**

The NRA isn't mincing words—they sent a letter to a Senate committee calling this exactly what it is: a "gun confiscation" scheme. The data backs that up. In 2025 alone, 314 ERPO petitions were filed in Minnesota—more than double the first year of the law. Judges granted them in 96 percent of cases.

Ninety-six percent. That is not a court applying due process. That is a rubber stamp on a conveyor belt.

Richfield Police Chief Jay Henthorne, president of the Minnesota Chiefs of Police Association, is cheerleading the expansion. His argument: filing on-scene will "expedite the process." Read that again. The goal is fewer friction points between an accusation and your guns being gone.

Rep. Cedrick Frazier (DFL-New Hope) declared the legislation has "saved many lives." He offered no evidence—because there isn't any. ERPOs don't treat mental health crises. They disarm someone, send them home, and leave every underlying problem exactly where it was. The crisis doesn't leave. The guns do.

**This is not a safety measure. This is a confiscation infrastructure being built one bill at a time.**

Here's the detail that should make every gun owner's blood run cold: this bill already cleared committee in the tied Minnesota House. In a tied chamber, you don't advance anything without votes from both sides. That means Republicans voted for this. Not bipartisan wisdom—Republican capitulation on a bill that guts due process and calls itself compassion.

Gun owners in Minnesota are watching their rights get dismantled in increments while legislators take victory laps about "effectiveness" and the press nods along. A 96-percent grant rate on government gun grabs isn't effective governance. It's a system designed to say yes.

**What you need to do right now:** Call and email your state representative and senator—especially any Republican who voted this out of committee. Find them at leg.mn.gov. The NRA's Institute for Legislative Action is already engaged and tracking this. Make noise before the full floor votes land. Because once this passes, the infrastructure is built—and five years is a very long time to wait to get your rights back.