Every Wednesday evening me and other members of Campaign for Liberty sit down and have dinner. Last night we were joined by potential Minnesota Governor Republican candidate Tom Emmer. You can imagine that any candidate that sits down with us for several hours is probably going to be closer to a libertarian than a neo-conservative which, by what he said throughout the night, is very true.
I’ve mentioned Representative Emmer on this blog before after he introduced the Minnesota Firearms Freedom Act which emulates the same act passed in Montana. I talked to him briefly about it, mainly asking why there was an exemption for machine guns. This is always a good litmus test to see if a candidate is pro-gun or not as many will give reasoning why machine guns are horrible weapons that civilians shouldn’t have. Tom said he didn’t realize such a clause was in there and asked me to e-mail him the part of the bill that says that as he felt it shouldn’t be in there. I did e-mail him although haven’t heard back yet but alas this means one of two things. First he just fucked up or two he didn’t know what was in his own bill. Either way he said he didn’t see a difference between machine guns and any other type of firearm. Good.
I then asked him about suppressors. He lives right down the street from the range I go to (I didn’t know that previously) and admitted to enjoying the sound of gun fire (another good thing). But he agreed that suppressors should be legal in Minnesota as well. That question was more or less for my person interest on the subject.
Finally I asked him what he thought about Alaska and Vermont style carry laws. Once again Mr. Emmer thought they were great. He also said in his opinion the licensing thing we have in this state was nothing more than a method to appease law enforcement officers and felt we should be able to practice our right to bear arms without any for of licensing. He also made a quick mention about how we should get a clause in the Minnesota constitution proclaiming citizens’ right to bear arms (we have no such clause).
Overall I was very impressed with him, even on issues outside of guns. He is certainly a person to keep an eye on for Minnesota governor.