Fourteen gun safety proposals are making their way though the Minnesota State Senate

That committee has a heavy Democratic majority, unlike the party's slim one-vote edge in the full Senate.

St. Louis Park Senator Ron Latz (DFL) says some issues remain controversial."The key cornerpiece ones that are most controversial are things like the assault weapons ban, the ban or limit on high capacity magazines, things like that which really touch directly on the guns themselves, and not on other paths toward reducing gun violence," Latz said talking to Blois Olson on WCCO's Sunday Take.

Many of the proposals now go to the Senate Finance Committee before facing floor debate.

It then gets even trickier when the legislation moves on to the House, which remains equally divided, 67-67.

Despite those challenges, Latz says the mood toward these bills is different this time around.

"Those of us who've been working on this for years, it's always seemed a little bit more abstract or distant," said Latz. You know, Rocori High School, Red Lake, those are all, you know, further back in time. It's front and center now."

Latz is referring to the Annunciation Church mass shooting, along with the political assassination of former House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband.

Two teenagers were shot and killed by a fellow student at Rocori High School in 2003. Two years later, a 16-year-old shot and killed two people before taking the lives of seven others at Red Lake High School in northern Minnesota.

So far, there's been very little support for the proposed gun legislation among Republicans despite pleas from Democrats including Governor Tim Walz to address the issue.

Last week, the parents of one of the Annunciation victims, Mike Moyski, addressed the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. Moyski is the father of 10-year-old Harper Moyski who was killed at Annunciation.

Along with his wife, Moyski asked the committee to ban the possession of semiautomatic military-style assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition magazines, particularly AR-15 which was one of the weapons used at Annunciation.

"If a weapon that someone prefers for sport is also the weapon that repeatedly shows up in the deadliest attacks in our schools and churches, then we should at least have the courage, the courage, to ask that weapon if it belongs in our civilian life," Moyski told the committee. "Because right now we're prioritizing hobbies and convenience over the lives of our children."