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On the same afternoon that gunshot-survivor and former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords spoke in Minneapolis about the need for sensible gun-control measures, Cedric Ford was being served a protection order in Newton, Kan.

"Be courageous," Giffords told a crowd last week, in the halting tones that have marked her speech ever since she was shot in the head in 2011 at an event in her home state. "Stopping gun violence takes courage." While Giffords was at her next Minnesota event, at a West St. Paul gun range, Ford loaded an assault rifle and semi-automatic pistol and headed to the lawn-care company that employed him in nearby Hesston. Within a half-hour, three people would be dead and 14 wounded — many critically.

Ford was an ex-con on probation, with a criminal record that stretched back a decade. His ex-girlfriend has been charged with illegally providing him the weapons. Kansas does not require background checks of private gun sales or permits to carry concealed weapons, but it does bar recent felons from owning guns.

Mass shootings have become so frequent that they are verging on the routine. Barely two months into the new year, the U.S. has racked up more than 30 such assaults. Hesston isn't even the latest episode. On Friday, a man shot himself after an armed standoff in Belfair, Wash. — but not before he shot and killed four others. On Monday, a 14-year-old toted a weapon to school and opened fire on his classmates in the cafeteria. No one was killed, but four students were injured.

Minnesota lawmakers this year will try once more for modest measures aimed at curbing gun violence. They'll be aided by groups like the Minnesota Coalition for Common Sense, which Giffords was here to unveil, and Everytown for Gun Safety, which plans to be active here.

This time, responsible gun owners should listen hard to what these groups have to say. This state has a strong culture around hunting and gun ownership. Expanded background checks, stricter penalties for gun traffickers and straw buyers, and other common-sense measures hold no peril, and only minimal inconvenience, for law-abiding gun owners. That's why polls show support for such proposals among average gun owners.

Whether these measures will help is hard to say, in part because federal funding of research that might shed light on what works is banned. We do know that what we have now is not working. Doubters should spend a few minutes with Ret. Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, Gifford's husband. Astronaut, engineer and former combat pilot, Kelly is career military and a strong supporter of the Second Amendment. "More guns do not make us safer," he said in a meeting with the Star Tribune Editorial Board. Those who believe more armed citizens will make situations safer "don't understand what it's like when bullets are flying," he said. "It's not like the movies."

Another incident in Minnesota may be only a matter of time. Let's offer more than thoughts and prayers.