HF5140

Purpose and scope

This bill aims to tighten regulation of semiautomatic military-style firearms and large-capacity magazines, strengthen school safety and mental health supports, add enforcement and reporting requirements, and adjust funding across public safety, education, and human services programs. It adds new definitions and penalties, expands programs for threat reporting and risk protection orders, and makes targeted appropriations to support these goals. It also includes changes to several Minnesota statutes and repeals some older provisions.

Main provisions

• Semiautomatic military-style firearms and large-capacity magazines
  • Defines and lists semiautomatic military-style assault weapons (SAMSLAs) and related features that trigger restrictions. The list includes specific models and categories (rifles, pistols, shotguns) and broad criteria like detachable magazines, pistol grips, folding/telescoping stocks, shrouds, and other features.
  • Establishes that certain firearms with these features are restricted, and makes clear that a firearm is not a SAMSLA only if permanently inoperable.
  • Also covers guns that can be modified or licensed by another company to be substantially identical to a listed weapon, and restrictions on importation of such weapons.
  • Includes definitions and criteria around what counts as a SAMSLA, including detachable magazines, grips, stocks, and other listed features for rifles, pistols, and shotguns, plus conversion kits.
• Ghost guns and related regulation
  • Moves to criminalize ghost guns (unserialized or unserialized firearms) and related possession/sale practices.
• Ownership, storage, and reporting
  • Adds requirements related to ownership certification and reporting under the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) framework.
  • Expands reporting and documentation requirements tied to firearm possession and transfers.
• Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs)
  • Reenacts or strengthens provisions around ERPOs, including needed public awareness and enforcement mechanisms.
  • Requires public education and law enforcement awareness activities.
• Threat reporting and school safety
  • Encourages or requires local anonymous threat reporting systems in schools.
  • Supports duties related to anonymous reporting system compliance and operations under statutory sections.
• Education and school safety funding
  • Creates an onetime appropriation for school safety aid, with funding tied to pupil enrollment as of a specified date and intended for purposes aligned with safe schools revenue.
  • Allows grants to nonpublic schools for safety improvements, with prioritization for schools with lower fiscal capacity.
  • Requires reporting on grant recipients and uses to oversight committees by specified dates.
• Mental health and related services
  • Provides onetime or targeted funding for school-linked behavioral health grants, family peer specialist startup grants, mobile crisis grants, and mental health grants for health care professionals.
  • Supports increases to mental health reimbursement rates for providers.
  • Adds related implementation and reporting requirements for these programs.
• Public safety and enforcement provisions
  • Adjusts appropriations and administrative structures to support the new safety and gun-control measures, including responsibilities for the BCA and the Office of Justice Programs.
• Repeals and reforms
  • Repeals specified existing Minnesota statutes to align with the new framework.

Significant changes to existing law

• Introduces a comprehensive framework for banning and regulating SAMSLAs and large-capacity magazines, with detailed feature-based criteria and model lists.
• Expands definitions and enforcement tools around ghost guns.
• Strengthens ERPO-related authorities, public awareness, and law-enforcement coordination.
• Adds new duties for schools and school districts to implement anonymous threat reporting systems and to apply school safety grants.
• Recasts funding across public safety, education, and health services with several one-time appropriations aimed at immediate initiatives (e.g., public awareness campaigns, nonpublic school safety grants, mental health supports).
• Creates new or expanded processes for ownership certification and reporting of firearms (BCA-related changes).

Appropriations and fiscal notes (high level)

• Public Safety and Enforcement
  • Onetime or short-term funding to support ERPO efforts, public awareness, and related enforcement activities.
  • Funding to establish or expand the certification of ownership framework and related BCA activities.
• Education
  • Onetime funding for school safety aid, calculated using enrollment factors, to be distributed in 2027.
  • Eligible uses aligned with safe schools revenue.
  • Administrative provisions for grant administration and reporting.
• Human Services
  • Onetime funding for school-linked behavioral health grants, startup family peer specialist grants, mobile crisis grants, and health-care professional mental health grants.
  • Onetime funding to support mental health reimbursement rate increases.
• Overall approach
  • Several provisions are one-time appropriations intended to jump-start programs and systems related to safety, mental health, and school readiness, with future years depending on ongoing funding decisions.

Implementation considerations and potential impacts

• The bill would expand gun-control measures with explicit definitions of prohibited SAMSLAs and related features, potentially impacting ownership, possession, and sales.
• School safety funding and anonymous threat reporting requirements could increase safety-related activities in school settings and impose administrative duties on districts and schools.
• ERPO enhancements and public awareness efforts could affect enforcement workflows and public understanding of risk-based orders.
• Financial allocations emphasize short-term investments in safety and health services, with monitoring and reporting requirements to track use and effectiveness.

Relevant terms - semiautomatic military-style assault weapon (SAMSLA) - large-capacity magazines - ghost guns - extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs) - anonymous threat reporting systems - Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) - ownership certification - Office of Justice Programs - public awareness campaign - violence prevention project - nonpublic school safety grants - school safety aid - safe schools revenue - school-linked behavioral health grants - family peer specialist startup grants - mobile crisis grants - mental health reimbursement rate increases - Minnesota Statutes (defined changes and repeals)