(VIDEO) Latz: Gun Control Will Wait Until After Budget Discussions

Gun control discussions will take a back seat to setting the state’s budget, Senate Judiciary Chairman Ron Latz (DFL-District 46) told Senate Media Services in an interview published Friday.

“Our first job is to deal with the budget—and to deal with the jobs and economy in Minnesota,” Latz said. “And this is a budget year. So this is the year that the Legislature will set the budget for the next two years. That’s our first task.”

Watch the full video in the player above. Latz's interview starts at the 3:36 mark.

Latz—whose district includes Hopkins, Golden Valley, Plymouth and St. Louis Park—said his committee is starting this year’s session by examining funding for the Judiciary, the Department of Corrections, public defenders and other groups under his committee’s purview.

He stressed that the odds of a school shooting are small. While he said there are still improvements to be made, he added that students and parents shouldn’t worry about their safety at schools—even without a change in the law.

Latz declined to back any specific gun control measure, although he did say he was uncomfortable with proposals to arm teachers.

“But beyond that, I don’t have any particular proposal that I’m going to be out advocating for,” Latz said. “But our committee is the committee with the jurisdiction over the topic, and I tend to lean in favor of control over access to guns—certainly certain types of guns, assault rifles, the multiple magazine guns, as well, like the Bushmaster that was used in the Connecticut shooting.”

He also pushed back against Rep. Tony Cornish’s quote in a MinnPost article that Cornish isn’t sure “there’s any interest in the DFL to be known as the party who took away gun owners’ rights.”

Countered Latz: “I don’t think it’s about gun owners’ rights. I think that they’re already established in state law—lots of rights for people to own guns—but it is a regulated access and that’s just the nature of it, just like driving cars is regulated. The question is what are the appropriate regulations and where do we draw that line.”