"Minnesota voters rejected the gun lobby in this election," said Rebecca Thoman, Executive Director of Citizens for a Safer Minnesota.

The NRA and its local gun lobby partners failed to re-elect Representative Lynda Boudreau, author of the 2003 conceal and carry gun law and its strongest advocate. "Rep. Boudreau spent more time doing the bidding of a special interest group than looking out for the interests of her community," Thoman added.

A new state political fund, Sensible Gun Laws, educated voters about their local lawmakers' voting record and probably helped swing the vote in at least one suburban district. Mary Rosenthal, treasurer of the political fund remarked, "Some voters weren't aware of how their lawmakers had voted back in 2003. When they were made aware, they didn't feel that a vote for conceal and carry reflected their community's values."

In the election of 2004:
• More lawmakers who voted FOR passage of the conceal and carry gun law in 2003 were defeated than those who voted against it.

  Rep. Nora Slawik, author of the bill to repeal conceal and carry, was easily re-elected.

• Eleven lawmakers who supported the gun law, including author Lynda Boudreau of Faribault, were defeated in re-election bids.

• Every Republican who opposed the gun bill was re-elected except Rep. Jim Rhodes of St. Louis Park.

• Only one incumbent Democrat who opposed conceal and carry was defeated.

• The rural Democrat targeted for defeat by the NRA because he opposed conceal and carry (Rep. Aaron Peterson of Madison) was re-elected.

• Rep. Nora Slawik, author of the bill to repeal conceal and carry, was easily re-elected.

With the Minnesota House more evenly balanced politically, and with public awareness high, it may be more difficult for the gun lobby to force their handgun law through the legislature in 2005.