Minnesota cops sue NFL over gun ban
By David Hanners
dhanners@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 02/18/2014 12:01:00 AM CST | UPDATED: 28 MIN. AGO

Minnesota's largest police group and police union are suing the NFL and the Vikings, claiming the league's new ban on off-duty cops carrying their guns to games is illegal.

The Minnesota law that allows businesses to bar weapons specifically exempts "active licensed" peace officers, and state law trumps NFL rules, the lawsuit says.

But the National Football League disagrees, saying the law doesn't apply to it. Although an NFL spokesman declined to comment on the suit, when police officials complained about the policy last fall, the league's security chief said a ticket to a game is a license that teams can revoke at will -- and being an armed off-duty cop is reason enough.

The NFL said that between on-duty officers assigned to games and rent-a-cops, there are enough guns inside NFL stadiums, and the league worries about "blue-on-blue" shootings.

Minnesota cops sue NFL over gun ban
By David Hanners
dhanners@pioneerpress.com
POSTED: 02/18/2014 12:01:00 AM CST | UPDATED: 28 MIN. AGO

Minnesota's largest police group and police union are suing the NFL and the Vikings, claiming the league's new ban on off-duty cops carrying their guns to games is illegal.

The Minnesota law that allows businesses to bar weapons specifically exempts "active licensed" peace officers, and state law trumps NFL rules, the lawsuit says.

But the National Football League disagrees, saying the law doesn't apply to it. Although an NFL spokesman declined to comment on the suit, when police officials complained about the policy last fall, the league's security chief said a ticket to a game is a license that teams can revoke at will -- and being an armed off-duty cop is reason enough.

The NFL said that between on-duty officers assigned to games and rent-a-cops, there are enough guns inside NFL stadiums, and the league worries about "blue-on-blue" shootings.

Gun sales are plunging

Sales of guns and ammo are losing steam after a frenzied run-up sparked by fears of greater restrictions in the wake of the Newtown shooting and other massacres.

Background checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, considered to be the most accurate means of tracking gun sales, plunged by a third in January compared to the year before. There were about 1.66 million background checks last month, and nearly 2.5 million in January the year before.

In the past two years, gun shop owners and consumers have complained of ammunition shortages and a dearth in fast-selling semiautomatic rifles and high-capacity magazines, even as manufacturing ramped up.

The full coalition members roster is no longer posted on the Mayors Against Illegal Guns website, and the disappearance happened right after Gun Rights Examiner questioned why Michael Bloomberg was still listed for New York City and pointed out that successor Bill de Blasio had not yet committed to joining the group.

There’s no argument that it could just be a coincidence, and that the site could be undergoing upgrades, but the timing certainly seems open to question. The roster was present on the site on Saturday, when this column pointed out hostility between the former mayor and his replacement (a screenshot was included to show the segment of the New York roster still featuring Bloomberg), and by Monday, the first workday after that column was published, the drop down menu to identify members by state and city had disappeared from the coalition page. Four days later, at this writing, that roster is still not re-posted, and while it’s possible updating the website is not a priority, it’s also possible the removal was directed.

There is no love lost between the two. Bloomberg had criticized de Blasio’s campaign as “racist,” and de Blasio “made a winning campaign out of tarnishing Bloomberg's legacy.” So the new mayor’s conspicuous absence from the MAIG roster, along with press accounts to show he has not made joining a priority, leads to fair speculation that he might be intentionally, perhaps permanently holding out. The equally anti-gun de Blasio might prefer to head up his own efforts as opposed to following Bloomberg’s lead, and he might even want to stick it to a man he doesn’t like by withdrawing the coalition’s flagship city.

It could be, as the Brady Campaign found out when his hatchet man slapped them down over who had claim to using anti-gun celebrities, that Bloomberg will find the biggest impediment to his assuming command of the “gun control” movement is people with egos as big as his having good reasons to personally detest him. Perhaps that will prove to be his Achilles Heel.

MINNEAPOLIS—The Department of Public Safety estimated that roughly one in eight drivers on Minnesota roads does not have a valid license.

And court records show that in the last six years, thousands have been charged and convicted for driving illegally.

As part of a joint investigation, KARE-11 and Minnesota Public Radio News analyzed Minnesota court records and found that since 2008, there have been nearly 310,000 convictions for violations related to driving without a valid license. Those convictions include learner's permit violations, as well as violations for driving with no license, or with licenses that have been suspended, revoked, disqualified or cancelled.

The records show thousands of repeat offenders.