Data from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety shows an increase in murders during Democrat vice-presidential candidate Tim Walz’s (D) time as governor of Minnesota, even as state-level gun control increased during the same time, as Breitbart News has pointed out.
FOX News reviewed Minnesota Department of Public Safety data, noting that there were 104 murders in Minnesota in 2018, which was the year before Walz took office.
However, in 2019, Walz’s first year as Governor, murders increased by 12 percent to 117. Then, in 2020…[murders] “skyrocketed to 185. In 2021, the state recorded 201 murders, 182 in 2022, and 172 last year,” Fox News reported.
A push for more and more gun control coincided with the surging murders.
For example, on February 21, 2018, the Star Tribune reported that DFL gubernatorial candidate Walz campaigned on an “assault weapons” ban.
His push for such a ban continued throughout his governorship. KARE11 noted Walz used part of his 2023 State of the State message to go after firearms that he labeled “weapons of war.” “I’m not just a veteran, or a hunter, or a gun owner. I’m a dad,” he said. “And for many years, I was a teacher. I know that there’s no place for weapons of war in our schools, or in our churches, or in our banks, or anywhere else people are just trying to live their lives without fear.”
And Breitbart News reported Walz has also signed gun controls as governor which both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have sought to secure at the federal level. On May 19, 2023, Walz’s office put out a press release noting that he had signed universal background check and red flag legislation into law.
All this gun control, yet murders continue to rise.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at
