The top aide of a Minnesota lawmaker who introduced a sweeping gun-control bill said he received a death threat at the office from someone upset about the legislation.

“He said, ‘You better hide because I have my gun and I know where you are,’ ” said Adrian Benjamin, legislative assistant to Rep. Linda Slocum, DFL-Richfield.

Benjamin contacted Capitol security, who in turn contacted the Minnesota State Patrol about the call. A trooper called the man back and took a report, but the man was not charged.

Benjamin said he received the call on the evening of Feb. 26, when he was working late. He picked up the phone and the man asked for Slocum. When Benjamin said she wasn’t there, the man said, “I’m calling about that damn gun bill.”

When Benjamin then asked where the man lived, the man gave a city outside Slocum’s district. Benjamin then told the man that because he wasn’t a constituent, he would put the man in contact with his respective representative.

The response seemed to anger the man, who started swearing, and said, “Oh, so no one’s going to listen to what I have to say?” according to Benjamin, who said the threat came soon after.

Benjamin hung up, and the phone rang almost immediately; Benjamin allowed it to go to voicemail. There was more swearing, before the man hung up.

“The voicemail was vulgar at best,” a State Patrol report on the incident read.

The report said the man, when contacted at the phone number recorded by the answering machine, told a trooper his conversation was “taken out of context,” and denied making the threat.

As for the phone call, the trooper wrote, “when Mr. Benjamin answered the call he hadn’t gotten the phone to his ear but thought he heard (the caller) say that he had a gun and that he (Benjamin) should hide.”

The report noted the trooper had no way to verify the alleged threat, as it was not recorded.

“I explained to (the man) that he was only talking to a legislative assistant and even though he felt strongly about the bill brought by Rep. Slocum that he should refrain from profanity and call his own State Representative,” concluded the report, which was closed.

The Pioneer Press contacted the man at home; he said he left the voicemail message at Slocum’s office, but denied talking to Benjamin — or threatening him.

“Never once would I ever threaten anybody. Never in my life would I ever threaten anybody with a firearm. That’s what I told the officer,” said the man, whom the Pioneer Press is not identifying because he has not been charged and is not a public figure. “I never talked to anybody live. I only called once.”

But Benjamin said, “I’m absolutely sure it was him because the same number came up on my phone, both times. … The Trooper said he would basically scare the man to let him know he can’t do this. And if he (the man) ever did this again, to let him know.”

Slocum said she’s taken precautions regardless.

“I did call the Richfield police, and they asked, ‘Do you want us to stop?’ and I said, ‘No, I don’t. But if you’re in that area, just drive by,’ and they said they would.” She also asked Bloomington police to keep an eye out during her district’s DFL’s endorsing convention.

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Slocum’s bill, which has not been scheduled for a hearing, is one of the most expansive gun-control bills filed in Minnesota in recent memory.

It expands the definition of assault weapons to include many semiautomatic pistols, rifles and shotguns and makes possessing them a felony; bans many private gun sales without going through a licensed dealer; makes possessing bump stocks, silencers and many “large-capacity” magazines a felony; requires all ammunition to be purchased from a licensed dealer; and makes it illegal for people who owe court-ordered child support to own firearms.