Minnesota: A land of 10,000 schizophrenics?

Most Minnesotans want a smoke-free state, but on the other hand, don't touch my gun!

by Leigh Pomeroy

The polling results from the Minnesota House and Senate State Fair booths are in, and, while hardly scientific, they show that Minnesotans by a margin of at least 2-to-1 support a statewide smoking ban in bars and restaurants. Here are the results:

House

Question #5. A number of Minnesota cities have banned smoking in bars and restaurants. Do you support a statewide ban?

Yes............................................ 71.7%.................. (4,692)
No............................................. 25.9%.................. (1,697)
Undecided/No Opinion.................. 2.4%.................... (158)
Total in survey........................................................ (6,547)

Senate

Question #10. Would you support a statewide smoking ban in all bars and restaurants?

I would support a smoking ban in both bars and restaurants........ 61.91%... (2,714)
I would support a smoking ban in restaurants only..................... 14.19%...... (622)
I oppose any further restrictions on smoking.............................. 13.85%..... (607)
This issue should be dealt with on a local rather than state level.... 8.99%..... (394)
Undecided/No opinion.............................................................. 1.07%...... (47)
Total in survey....................................................................................... (4,384)

Judging from these surveys, if lawmakers listened to ordinary, fair-going Minnesotans instead of tobacco lobbyists and economic special interests — and that's a big "if" — then the legislature should be enacting a statewide smoking ban in all indoor public places next year.

Despite Minnesota State Fairgoers' strong support for the smoking ban, a pro-public health issue, a recent visitor from the East Coast points out in an op/ed piece in the New York Times Minnesota's dalliance with unexpected legislative anomalies. In "Once a Progressive State, Minnesota Is Now a Fief of the N.R.A.," Verlyn Klinkenborg writes,

A couple of weeks ago, I checked into a hotel in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb framed by the airport and the Mall of America. On the hotel door was a sign: “Firearms Banned on These Premises.” The next day I drove to St. Joseph, an hour west of the Twin Cities, where I saw the same sign. Slowly the logical conclusion sank in. If firearms are banned on these premises, then they must not be banned in other places.

He continues:

I grew up hunting and shooting, and I still own two rifles (a .22 and a .270) and two shotguns (a 20-gauge and a 12-gauge, to be specific). When I was young, I expected that I would own guns when I grew up because I enjoyed hunting and I liked the good hunters I knew — as I still do.

But to me, owning guns and knowing how to use them properly was part of a civic bargain. I would leave the police work to the police, and they would leave the squirrel hunting to me. The notion that 38 states would have “concealed carry” laws in 2006 would have seemed insane, a regression to a more primitive idea of who we are.

And concludes:

Guns make a perfect test case, because the end result is an armed cohort that is very prickly about its personal rights. The N.R.A. has armed the thousands of Minnesotans who applied for a permit once the “concealed carry” law passed. But it has disarmed the public by making sure that legislators will no longer vote for gun laws that protect the rest of us.

Minnesota: The land of 10,000 lakes... and perhaps as many schizophrenias. But as Garrison Keillor might say, Minnesotans are probably just "above average" crazy.