During Wednesday’s gun control hearings at the Minnesota State Capitol a gun control advocate was given three times the amount of speaking time she was allocated and when the gun rights advocates took the stage several members of the committee, including the author of the bill being discussed, simply left.
Yesterday gun rights advocates that arrived at the hearing early were alerted to a sudden and otherwise unannounced change, all attendees of the hearing had to get tickets and tickets were going to be handed out in a manner that ensure an equal number of gun control and gun rights advocates were present. The reason for this wasn’t given although I have a friend who works as a Page for the House that claimed it was established to maintain order. I’m sure that’s what they told him, and I’m sure he believed what they told him, but it’s pretty evident the true reason for establishing the ticket system was to control the message by making it look like there weren’t as many gun rights advocates present as there were. Between the shenanigans that took place Wednesday and yesterday it was apparent that the committee had their minds made and that the hearings were entirely for show.
Of course this shouldn’t surprise anybody. Once again we return to the fact that committee hearings aren’t about listening to input from proponents and opponents of a bill, they exist to make the serfs believe they have some kind of decision making power within the state. Unfortunately that isn’t the case.