Star Tribune
Minnesota legislator concerned gun storage law puts farmers at greater risk if a cow charges
While discussing his concerns about a legislative proposal for more stringent gun-storage laws, Minnesota State Sen. Warren Limmer offered one that caught some off-guard: He thinks farmers will be in greater danger of being injured by a charging cow if they don’t have easy access to a gun.
Limmer, R-Maple Grove, raised his concern with the proposal during Friday’s legislative hearing for the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. The proposal authored by Sen. Heather Gustafson, DFL-Vadnais Heights, increases the criminal penalties for negligent gun storage and specifies what level of security is required. Under the proposal as it currently reads, guns must be unloaded and equipped with a locking device when the owner is not carrying it, or placed in a locked gun storage unit.
He said many farmers have a gun readily available for emergencies, and that if they aren’t accessible quickly, more cow-related injuries or fatalities could result.
“Take for example a cow that just recently had a calf — you even walk too close to a cow and it’ll take you down and trample you into dust,” Limmer said. “Fumbling around with a lock while a cow or a bull or any other animal is going after your daughter or your son — you can’t fumble around with a key or try and find the lockbox or put your thumb on a biometric key of some sort in your home while the danger is outside.”
Reports show that deaths caused by cows in the U.S. are uncommon but not unheard of. In 2019, a 41-year-old Minnesota man was trampled to death in his cow yard near Parkers Prairie. A January 2024 report by the journal Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology estimated that around 20 to 22 deaths per year in the United States are caused by cattle.
Along with his concern for cattle farmers, Limmer said he thinks the bill ignores people who need a gun more readily available to protect themselves inside a home.
Fellow Republican senators and organizations associated with gun ownership or gun rights also argued against the bill. Others spoke in favor of it, including victims of gun violence and some DFL senators.
Limmer did not return a request for comment Monday.
The DFL candidate for a Roseville seat in the Minnesota House is pushing back on allegations from his Republican opponent that he doesn’t live in the district he hopes to represent.
Curtis Johnson is currently a member of the Roseville Area Schools board. He has owned a home in Little Canada since 2017, according to Ramsey County property records.
In May he filed to run for the open seat in House District 40B, saying he lived in an apartment complex less than 3 miles from his Little Canada home. The district includes parts of Roseville and Shoreview and has been represented by DFLer Jamie Becker-Finn, who isn’t seeking re-election, since 2017.
In a statement, Johnson said he and his wife decided to move to Roseville last year, but they’ve struggled to find the right house. In the meantime, he’s been renting “a Roseville apartment as my primary residence while we keep searching for a forever home.”
“My wife and our youngest child still live in the house because we didn’t want to disrupt our child’s life by moving the rest of the family into my apartment and then moving them again after we found a house in Roseville,” Johnson’s statement said.
Wikstrom released an ad Oct. 15 that accused Johnson of lying about his residency, but he has not committed to making a legal challenge. A residency challenge would be decided by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
“My confidence level is high that we have a solid case he is not a resident of the district,” Wikstrom said in an interview. He noted that Johnson’s vehicle is often at the Little Canada home and a portable storage container appeared out front days after his political ad went online.
An unlicensed driver is now charged on accusations that he was speeding and under the influence of alcohol when he set off a chain-reaction pileup on an interstate exit ramp in Minneapolis, leaving one person dead and several others injured.
Talon Covie-Cardell Walker, 29, of St. Paul, was charged late Thursday afternoon in Hennepin County District Court with criminal vehicular homicide in connection with the seven-vehicle pileup about 9:15 p.m. Wednesday after exiting from eastbound Interstate 94 toward Lyndale Avenue.
Walker remains held without bail ahead of a court appearance Friday afternoon. Court records do not list an attorney for him.
A search warrant affidavit was filed in court by the State Patrol that cleared the way for Walker’s blood to be collected to measure his degree of intoxication. Results are pending. The affidavit said Walker was “pushing 100 mph when taking the ramp, [and] it appears no braking took place before the crash.”
Walker was driving without a valid license, according to the state Department of Public Safety. In late 2019, his license was suspended, then it was revoked in spring 2021, the agency said.
Court records in Minnesota show Walker has traffic convictions for careless driving and operating a motorcycle without a license. State records also show convictions for illegal weapons possession, disorderly conduct, a minor drug offense and twice for violating a court no-contact order.
Walker’s passenger, 20-year-old Taniyah Randle-Smith, was taken by ambulance to HCMC with life-threatening injuries, according to the patrol. A hospital spokeswoman said Thursday afternoon that she was in critical condition.
Killed in the crash was Natalie Gubbay, a 26-year-old SUV driver from Minneapolis, whose vehicle was struck by Walker’s. Her passenger, Molly Elizabeth Brenton, 28, of Virginia, Minn., was taken to HCMC with noncritical injuries.
A juvenile has died while in detention at the Red Wing correctional facility in southeastern Minnesota.
Officials with the Minnesota Department of Corrections said staff on Saturday found an inmate who was unresponsive. Authorities attempted life-saving measures, which were unsuccessful. Paramedics arrived and the resident was pronounced dead at the scene, said spokeswoman Shannon Loehrke.
An investigation is underway to determine how the inmate died, she added.
No information about the identify of the deceased was released.
The Red Wing facility has a capacity of 88 inmates.
