In the wake of Alex Peregoff’s tragic death—shot by a Minnesota state trooper during a traffic stop gone horribly wrong—the gun rights conversation in the Gopher State has flipped on its head, with some Republicans echoing Democrat talking points about permitless carry being a reckless free-for-all. Enter Rob Doar from the MN Gun Owners Law Center, who joins Cam Edwards on the Cam & Company podcast to dissect Minnesota’s actual carry laws with surgical precision. Spoiler: Minnesota isn’t some Wild West outpost; it’s a shall-issue permit state with clear statutes under Minn. Stat. § 624.714, requiring applicants to be 21+, pass background checks, complete training, and prove good character. Doar methodically unpacks how constitutional carry (permitless for those 21+ without prohibitions) arrived via 2023’s legislative miracle, but it’s layered with restrictions like no carry in schools, government buildings, or while consuming alcohol—hardly the chaos critics paint.
What’s clever here is the rhetorical jujitsu: anti-gunners who once decried any armed citizenry now clutch pearls over permitless carry enabling untrained folks like Peregoff (who, it turns out, had a valid permit and no criminal record), while some GOP voices waver, suggesting we rewind to mandatory training gatekeeping. Doar’s takedown exposes this as hypocrisy—training doesn’t predict de-escalation in a high-stress cop encounter, and Minnesota’s low permit denial rate (under 1%) already weeds out the bad apples. The real flipped script? Republicans who championed HF1 in 2023 are now on defense, but as Doar argues, this is a teaching moment to double down: constitutional carry respects the 2A presumption of law-abiding adults, not a license for cowboys.
For the 2A community, the implications are electric—Minnesota’s saga foreshadows nationwide battles post-Bruen, where sensitive places carve-outs multiply like rabbits, and tragedy becomes ammo for rollback. Gun owners nationwide should rally behind resources like Doar’s Law Center, pushing data-driven defenses: Minnesota’s violent crime rates haven’t spiked post-permitless (FBI stats confirm), proving freedom doesn’t equal folly. Tune into the full breakdown—it’s a masterclass in turning grief into grit, reminding us that rights aren’t rationed by the emotionally opportunistic. Stay vigilant, carry confidently, and let’s keep the North Star State shining for self-defense.
