Okay, so calling the meeting of the city council's organizational and policy committee to order.

Roll call, please.

Council President Naker.

Councilmember Bowie.

Here.

Councilmember Coleman.

Here.

Councilmember Johnson.

Here.

Councilmember Jost.

Here.

Councilmember Kim.

Councilmember Yang.

Here.

Seeing five present, two absent.

Wonderful.

Um, so thank you so much, Jacket.

I appreciate that.

Welcome back, uh, folks to the organization and policy committee.

I appreciate you guys for being with me on my first time uh being able to chair this committee.

Uh, as the council president is out today.

It looks like we have one item, but there's several presentations that'll be within that one item.

So it looks like it'll be like there's a lot of context added to it.

But this is a really important discussion.

Um, in early September, we heard uh the mayor's budget address, and we heard the urge for state officials as well as so as elected to like to consider a unified set of ordinances and ways to address uh gun violence and gun violence prevention in our city.

I personally am really supportive of this effort.

I think, you know, for me, I live on the east side of St.

Paul, but I think there's a lot of things where we are at a point in time where no action is just not acceptable any further.

And so I'm really excited about this discussion being brought up today.

Thank you to all of the speakers that will be able to come up uh and share other presentations, Mr.

Greenfield.

I appreciate you being here as well to kick us off just to talk about um the uh gun violence prevention work that we can do at the local level, and I think just in general, as we hold questions and uh discussions or anything that may hold for us.

I want to make sure that we have an equitable amount of time for each presentation and presenter.

So I'll try to pace us accordingly to just get through the hour because then we have the HRA meeting at two.

But uh, welcome, Mr.

Greenfield.

Thank you, Chair Johnson and members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to begin this policy committee session on gun violence prevention policies.

As chief policy officer for the city council, I'm here today to begin today's presentation with an overview of where the city may find its space to potentially regulate firearms.

We know that in the existing landscape, preemption seems to dominate everyone's conversation.

So I want to start from a high level to talk about preemption and then kind of zoom into where the city has acted in the past under existing state law in terms of ordinance and then what other states have enabled cities that aren't bound by preemption to potentially do will also be a highlight of the ending point of my discussion.

So start from a high level and then kind of move into more narrow and specific examples.

As everyone is aware, there is both concurrent state and federal authority with regulating firearms.

The Constitution allows Congress to regulate firearms through the Commerce Clause, but the limitation of the second second amendment also places a significant constraint on the level of government action towards firearms and a five-minute conversation on that would be nearly impossible.

So I will move past the federal conversation to discuss state law, as members of the committee may be aware.

But in terms of how state law has affected the cities, Minnesota statute since 1985, Section 471633 has explicitly preempted all cities, counties, towns, and other governmental subdivisions from regulating firearms, ammunition, or their respective components.

There are two exceptions to that regulation to that complete exclusion as the term of the statute is.

So in this sense, the preemption seems to be the way forward um that to allow more effective uh uh more direct action against firearms uh and their components.

So with that, I think it's kind of a uh a clear gateway towards uh potential further action, and I know that the council has and the and the mayor are you know have put forth proposals under that kind of auspice of once preemption is concluded, uh certain regulations would take effect.

Thank you, Mr.

Greenfield.

I appreciate that.

And I and once again, just the uh overall overview and especially the attentiveness that you've given to providing some of the background.

I know for me that's hearing a little bit more about some of the states that have uh either put this put language in place to either um you know either restrict or potentially come inside of the you know, and in favor of the local avenues.

I think that that's something that I'm you know pretty supportive of asking if we're not able to resolve it at a state level as well.

So sincerely appreciate that.

Um Councilmember Coleman, I believe I saw your hand.

Thanks, Chair Johnson.

Thanks, Mr.

Greenfield.