Anti-gun Minnesota legislators are trying to deceive citizens of the state about the popularity of their scheme to ban so-called “assault weapons,” which floundered in the state House of Representatives last session.
According to a press release put out by the Minnesota House of Representatives, “three-quarters of respondents to the 2026 House of Representatives’ State Fair Poll support banning the possession of semi-automatic military-style assault weapons in Minnesota.”
According to the release, the poll found that 75.2% of respondents favor a ban on the possession of “semi-automatic military-style assault weapons,” except peace officers, service members, and other government officials authorized to possess a weapon while acting within the scope of their duties. Some 20.5% of poll takers said they oppose a ban, while 4.3% were undecided.
A thinking person would have to wonder whether such information is accurate, given the strong gun-owning heritage in the ?/ State. The answer is probably not.
Here’s where things get sticky. The next sentence in the news release explains that the results came from an “informal, unscientific survey” of issues discussed in the prior legislative session. What that basically means is the poll results have no validity at all. Those conducting the survey could have picked participants with blue hair and “I hate MAGA” shirts just to push the results in the direction they wanted.
The wording of the firearm question included in the poll is also quite problematic. The question asked: “Should the possession of semi-automatic military-style assault weapons be prohibited except for peace officers, service members and other government officers authorized to possess a weapon while acting within the scope of their duties?”
That wording is obviously tailored to get a knee-jerk anti-gun result. The only thing they got right about the description is the semi-automatic part. Military-style describes guns used by the military, which AR-15s are not. And the term “assault weapons” was crafted by gun-ban advocates just to draw a negative reaction from those who know nothing about firearms.
Truth is, Americans own more than 32 million AR-15s and other similar semi-automatic modern sporting rifles, making them the most popular rifles in the United States. And Federal Bureau of Investigation figures show that less than 3% of homicides are committed with rifles of any type, and modern semi-autos are only a fraction of that category.
Consequently, the question could have been asked in many different ways. Perhaps it would have been better to ask, “Should the possession of common semi-automatic rifles owned by millions upon millions of lawful Americans for legal purposes like hunting, sport shooting and home defense be prohibited except for peace officers, service members and other government officers authorized to possess a weapon while acting within the scope of their duties?”
That would likely have elicited a different response, even with the same people polled.
Ultimately, this Minnesota House of Representatives “poll,” and the results gleaned from it, aren’t worth the time wasted for me to write this story. It’s not unlikely that a scientific poll with randomly selected participants and neutrally worded questions would have yielded vastly different results.
One thing’s for certain: The results of this “poll” are almost certainly going to be the main talking point for gun-ban advocates in the Minnesota legislature next year. With this “research” in hand, they’ll try to use it to run roughshod over those pro-gun lawmakers who are trying to protect the right of lawful Minnesota gun owners.
Of course, the entire Minnesota situation could be rendered moot with the U.S. Supreme Court set to hear challenges to two “assault weapons” bans in its upcoming session. Hopefully, the high court will follow the Constitution and do away with these unjust, unconstitutional schemes forever.
