It took Fox News more than a month to connect Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and gun control with the rise in homicides in the North Star State since he took office, but now it could become a campaign issue not unlike what has happened in Washington State since voters and lawmakers started adopting restrictive gun laws there.

But Wednesday, the cable network reported, “Data from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety reviewed by Fox News Digital shows that in 2018, the year before Walz took office, the state recorded 104 murders, a figure that increased by more than 12% in 2019, when the state recorded 117 murders. Murders in the state in 2020, when violent crimes spiked nationwide, skyrocketed to 185. In 2021, the state recorded 201 murders, 182 in 2022, and 172 last year.”

As if to underscore how gun control is a failed proposition, the New York Post is reporting that Chicago has once again earned the title of America’s murder capital for the 12^th straight year. As the Democrat convention kicked off Monday, the city was reminded that last year, at least 617 people were murdered. Over the weekend, as noted in a separate Fox News report, 30 people were shot, including five who were killed, as DNC delegates arrived in the Windy City.

On the convention’s first day, according to WFIN, eight people were shot and three were killed as Democrats convened behind fences and hundreds of police officers keeping demonstrators out.

The data stacks up to figures published by the FBI Uniform Crime Report before the agency went to the user-unfriendly Crime Explorer platform, which turns homicide data into a trainwreck.

The focus is on a federal appeals court panel’s ruling in July which struck down Minnesota’s ban on young adults in the 18-20-year age group from obtaining permits to carry. Gov. Walz has presided over increased restrictions on Minnesota gun owners, having shifted from being an “A” rated member of Congress to earning a failing grade from the National Rifle Association following his “conversion” on guns in the wake of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018.

Gun control is going to be a major issue. As noted by TheGunMag.com, the Democrat party platform contains an entire section on gun control. There was no mention of gun control in the Republican Party platform in July.

Included in the Democrats’ package are:

• Universal background checks
• A ban on so-called “assault weapons” and “high-capacity magazines”
• Repeal of the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act
• Mandatory “safe storage” (which is not defined)
• A national “Red Flag” law
• Increased funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
• Increased funding to the FBI for firearm background checks
• Funds for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) for “gun violence research”

Harris, when she was California attorney general, was named in at least two lawsuits involving the Second Amendment Foundation. As Joe Biden’s vice president, she was named to oversee the White House Office on Gun Violence Prevention, a creation of the Biden administration focusing on gun control. If Donald Trump wins a second term, it’s a certainty this office will be scrapped.

Ammoland has previously detailed the rise in homicides in Washington State since 2014 when the billionaire-backed gun prohibition lobby bankrolled a $10 million campaign to pass the first of two restrictive gun control initiatives. The second measure was passed in 2018, and in the interim, the Seattle City Council adopted a special tax on the retail sale of firearms and ammunition.

In addition, the Democrat-controlled legislature approved legislation banning so-called “large-capacity magazines” and “assault weapons.” Democrat Attorney General Bob Ferguson had pushed for these bans and finally achieved them, and he is now running to become the state’s next governor.

As noted by Fox News in its coverage of Walz as a born-again gun control proponent, the NRA has unceremoniously labeled him as a “political chameleon” who has changed his positions “to further his own personal agenda.”

“Kamala Harris and Tim Walz cannot be trusted to defend freedom and our Constitutional rights,” said Randy Kozuch, chairman of the NRA Political Victory Fund ion a statement released to the media a few days ago.

Democrats have been known for years as “the party of gun control,” and in recent years, that label has evolved into “the party of gun prohibition.” Critics say Democrats are determined to turn the rights protected by the Second Amendment into government-regulated privileges.

Even in his “farewell speech” to the DNC late Monday night—an event pushed back later into the evening as if the party really did not want Biden to be watched on live television by the nation—the president continued to talk about banning semiautomatic rifles.

Fox News’ look at the Minnesota gun control court defeat is perfectly timed to coincide with Walz’ official step into the spotlight at the DNC, and gives gun owners all they need to know about the man Harris wants along on her ride to what Democrats hope is the first female presidency.

Gun rights and the Second Amendment could be a deciding factor in the November election, and it will be up to gun owners to shed their traditional lethargy and come out as they did in 1994 to clean house on Capitol Hill.

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