Republican state senator holds gun, addresses 'tyrants' in the wake of DFL election wins
In the wake of the Democratic Party's election wins in Minnesota and beyond on Tuesday, a Republican senator reacted by posting a picture of himself holding a gun.
Sen. Nathan Wesenberg was among the Republican senators re-elected to office on Tuesday, comfortably winning his race in District 10, covering the Little Falls area.
But in the small hours of Wednesday morning, Wesenberg shared an old picture of himself handling a pistol to his senatorial Facebook page, with an accompanying caption that read: "Dear tyrants, From every red blooded, God fearing American. From our cold dead hands. God Bless America.
"Our rights shall not be infringed, and we have the constitutional right to overthrow a tyrannical government."
The picture generated a massive response, with the 31,000 comments featuring a significant number of Democratic supporters mocking what they believed to be a significant overreaction to the election loss, and generally poking fun at the Republican following the midterm defeats.
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The soon-to-be-three term senator used the aggressive rhetoric seemingly identifying Democrats as the "tyrants" and suggesting he and others like him have a "right to overthrow" such a government. The use of "from our cold dead hands" is a common refrain among Americans opposed to any form of gun control.
His post comes ahead of a legislative session where gun safety will likely be a major talking point, with the DFL regaining a trifecta of power in the first election since leading DFL legislator Melissa Hortman was fatally shot along with her husband Mark in a politically motivated assassination at their home in Brooklyn Park.
Minnesota has also been the scene of several mass shootings in the past two years, including the shooting at Annunciation Church and School in Minneapolis that resulted in the deaths of two children and injuries to more than a dozen others.
Republicans ultimately blocked efforts to enact new gun safety measures in the wake of the Annunciation shooting, but Governor-elect Amy Klobuchar has said that gun safety will be one of her legislative priorities when she takes office in January. The legislation will likely to be similar to one proposed last session that included bans on assault rifles, high-capacity magazines, and ghost guns.
Wesenberg has made headlines a few times since his election to office. Backed by the right-wing, Libertarian-leaning group Action 4 Liberty, Wesenberg was one of five legislators who proposed a bill to designate "Trump Derangement Syndrome" a mental illness in Minnesota, spoke at an anti-COVID vaccine rally in St. Paul, and once admitted to calling 911 to report a drag show.
Wesenberg would post an explanatory video later on Wednesday as he had "requests about the post I made about the 2nd Amendment and a picture of a firearm," as "apparently people think that's scary."
"There's this thing called the Second Amendment, and we have a thing called the Bill of Rights, and a thing called the Constitution and we have people leave a tyrannical government and they founded America and they wrote this document and we fought a war over this and I have God-given rights to have firearms and I'm using my First Amendment right to tell you that.
"The paper doesn't say that you give me the rights, they're from God, it's the declaration that says you can't touch my firearms, and I can say what I want, and I'm not harming anybody.
"But what the Democrats are doing is they want to take our firearms away, Amy Klobuchar said it last night, the Democrats tried to do it in spring, and we're not letting that happen. You don't have the right to take my firearms, you don't have the right to make me register my firearms, you don't have the right to tax my firearms. I have a right to defend myself against tyranny and oppressors and criminals.
"Criminals are going to have firearms and you want to take my guns away so I can get harmed by criminals who aren't going to register their firearms and are going to harm me and my family. Not going to happen. We're not giving our guns up. We're not harming anybody. That's just the way it is."
This story was originally published by Bring Me The News on Nov 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the MN News section. Add Bring Me The News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
