Lydia Kaiser, an eighth grader at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis who was wounded during a mass shooting during school Mass last August, spoke out Tuesday at the Minnesota Capitol for the first time since the attack and pushed lawmakers to act on gun violence prevention.
“Two students were shot and killed. Two students survived gunshot injuries to the head. I’m one of them,” Kaiser said of the Aug. 27 shooting. “Many more students were injured by bullets and flying glass. We all hid under the pews.”
Kaiser shared the extent of her injuries — that doctors had to remove half of her skull to remove bullet fragments from her brain over multiple surgeries.
“All children have the right to live free from gun violence in schools, churches and in our communities. Elected officials have a duty to protect us from guns. No one should have to go through what we went through at Annunciation,” she said.
Her comments came at a Tuesday morning news conference alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who announced his gun violence prevention package that includes an assault weapons ban, school safety grants, restricting untraceable “ghost guns” and much more.
Lydia Kaiser speaks at a news conference alongside Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who unveiled his plans for new gun restrictions in the state on Feb. 24, 2026.
WCCO
“We owe it to the Annunciation families not to have that just be another statistic in the book,” Walz said. “In Minnesota, that was the final straw.”
Walz vowed to push for legislation on guns despite the uphill battle in the divided Minnesota Legislature where Republicans and Democrats share power in a tied House. The future of such bills is also uncertain in the Senate with a one-seat DFL majority; a few Democrats, in addition to Republicans, have in the past expressed concern about some of the measures and their impact on law-abiding gun owners.
On Tuesday afternoon, House Democrats will introduce some of their bills to the judiciary committee, including the assault weapons ban and restrictions on high-capacity magazines. Moyski’s parents are expected to testify.
“What we’re talking about is are we going to be with the people, or are we going to be with the gun lobbyists and the gun industry? And I think we here know who we’re with, and Minnesotans know who they’re with, and I certainly hope my colleagues do, too,” said Rep. Emma Greenman, DFL-Minneapolis, who is authoring the semi-automatic, assault-style weapons ban.
Also in that Tuesday afternoon hearing, lawmakers will discuss strengthening penalties for individuals who impersonate a police officer, which is what authorities say accused assassin Vance Boelter did when he showed up at the Hortman and Hoffman homes in the middle of the night on June 14, 2025.
This story will be updated.
Lydia Kaiser’s full statement
My name is Lydia Kaiser. I’m in eighth grade at Annunciation Catholic School.
On Aug. 27, I was in church attending the first school mass of the year when a gunman fired 116 rounds of bullets through the stained glass windows.
Two students were shot and killed. Two students survived gunshot injuries to the head. I’m one of them.
Many more students were injured by bullets and flying glass. We all hid under the pews. The older students covered the younger students to protect them.
I was taken to the hospital and rushed into surgery. The doctor moved a large piece, almost half of my skull, to let my brain swell and to remove bone and bullet fragments from my head.
I had a second surgery three weeks later to put the piece of my skull back in my head.
All children have the right to live free from gun violence in schools, churches and in our communities.
Elected officials have a duty to protect us from guns.
No one should have to go through what we went through at Annunciation.
When the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety announced it would be introducing a robust new array of classes to help people safely buy, use and store firearms, the decision caught some longtime supporters off guard.
“They need to remember who it was that was there to help them get where they are,” said Colorado state Sen. Tom Sullivan, who began supporting the group after losing his son Alex in the 2012 Aurora mass shooting. “It’s people who are out there who are visiting cemeteries and going to church services.”
Though it may have surprised some, officials at Everytown for Gun Safety told CBS News their decision to enhance efforts to train gun users was wholly consistent with its mission.
The organization was galvanized more than a decade ago by the horrors of the Sandy Hook school shooting to begin lobbying for stronger background checks, an assault weapons ban and other measures aimed at reducing gun violence. Greg Lickenbrock, a firearms expert who helped design the group’s new gun training initiatives, said his goal is to expand the group’s reach.
“I’m a responsible gun owner who believes in common-sense gun laws. Everything we do at Everytown is about safety and responsibility,” Lickenbrock said. “We’re not abandoning anything.”
Everytown is marketing the new programming under the name TrainSMART, and plans to offers a variety of courses online where students can choose either on-demand or live Zoom-style instruction. The courses cover a wide range of topics including how to buy a gun, gun ownership, gun safety and marksmanship. The group hopes to offer in-person classes as soon as early next year.
“For Everytown to move into the business of working with gun owners and meeting gun owners where they are — that is a crucial step in promoting gun safety,” said Chris Marvin, a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot and fourth generation Army combat veteran who helped design the program.
Marvin said the course relies on the same principles he learned during his time with the military: training, safety and accountability.
“If it works for the military, if it works for the nation’s profession of arms, it should be the best way to approach civilian gun training as well,” he told CBS News.
Marvin says that includes learning about the components of your firearm and proper storage practices for locking it up.
In anticipation for its move into in-person instruction, the group has been hosting events at various gun ranges across the country to train and evaluate potential future instructors.
Still, not all survivors and families of victims have bought into the new approach.
Sullivan believes that with gun violence still rampant in the U.S., groups like Everytown need to focus on their original mission.
“I hope that we’re still reading from the same book, but maybe … they’re a couple chapters ahead of me,” Sullivan said.
A woman in Des Moines, Iowa, spotted an assault rifle on the roof of a police officer’s squad car on Sunday afternoon.
“I thought maybe it was a bike rack at first or something, but I kind of seen it hanging over the edge and I was like no, I was like is that, I think that’s like an assault rifle just sitting on top of their vehicle,” Jones said.
Jones made a traffic stop of her own, waving down the officer at a red light.
“I approached him with caution and just told him and he was completely stunned,” she said. “I could just tell on his face like he was a little confused and I keep telling him like, and I’m like pointing like, ‘There’s something up there that you might want to get,’” Jones said.
Des Moines Police Chief Michael McTaggart said in a statement posted to social media it was a “serious mistake,” but noted the officer in the video is not at fault.
“At shift change, an officer was offloading his equipment, set his rifle on top of the car and then left, and left that rifle there. Next officer came in, checked that car out and didn’t see the rifle on the roof and drove away,” said Sgt. Paul Parizek. “I think we’ve all had a situation in our lives where we’ve misplaced something, we’re looking for it, we walk by it two or three different times. That may help explain it. It definitely does not excuse what happened.”
Jones said she’s grateful she got the rifle off the roof before something happened.
“I said, ‘What if it falls off?’ [My niece said], ‘Don’t say that, we’re behind him. Like, what if it, you know, fires off or something?’” she said.
The Saint Paul, Minnesota city council turned the mic over to residents on Wednesday, with over a dozen people sharing their thoughts on a city ordinance aimed at restricting guns.
“This is common sense gun legislation,” said city council president and ward two council member Rebecca Noecker. “we’re trying to do what we know the majority of saint Paul residents.”
Noeker is one of the ordinance’s sponsors and wednesday marked it’s second time before the council. The proposed ordinance would ban public possession of assault weapons, large capacity magazines and binary triggers. It would require all guns to have serial numbers and restrict firearms in some public spaces like parks and libraries, require public facilities to inform residents of the new restrictions and define enforcement style and penalties.
There would be exceptions for active-duty law enforcement and military personnel, as well as licensed federal firearms curators and those transporting guns through the city.
The main hurdle, however, is Minnesota’s preemption law, which blocks cities from creating their own gun ordinances.
Noeker acknowledged the preemption law saying the city council sees this as a way to put pressure on state lawmakers.
“Its’ really important for two reasons one, to show what the city councils values are what the city of Saint Paul believes is acceptable and unacceptable,” Noeker said. “It’s also important to pressure the legislature to take that action.”
Rob Doar from the minnesota gun owners caucus says they plan to file a lawsuit, citing state statute 471.633, which reads, ‘Local regulation inconsistent with this section is void.’
“There’s a lot of things the city can do in order to try to mobilize action,” Doar said at the meeting Wednesday. “The one thing you can’t do is pass an ordinance that violates state law.”
Noeker says the city is ready for that legal challenge and believes council is within their rights to pass it.
“I feel very strongly that we have unanimous support for this ordinance,” she said.
Noeker says there’s still time for residents to share their perspective on the ordinance before council members vote on the matter next week.
If you were out for a walk and found a loaded gun, would you know what to do? That happened recently in Maplewood, Minnesota. Police there say they can’t recall the last time it happened.
The woman said she was walking her dog in the area of Century Avenue South and Linwood Avenue East when she saw what looked like a toy gun. She says she picked it up and once she felt the weight of it, she quickly realized she was holding a real gun.
Maplewood police responded to collect the weapon, which was loaded. A broken gun holster was found near the curb, about 15 feet away.
Lt. Joe Steiner says the gun is a Springfield XD 40 caliber semi-automatic handgun.
“In this case, a likely scenario is that someone had it on top of their vehicle, and as they were driving around the corner of the street, it looks like it may have fallen off,” Steiner said.
“The biggest risks are someone with a criminal or a nefarious intent to use the firearm if they find it. Or obviously, the most concerning worry would be a child finding the gun and harming themselves or someone else,” Steiner said when asked about the danger of having a firearm out in the open.
Steiner says law enforcement expects gun owners to be responsible.
“And a part of that responsibility is being able to account for your firearms at all times. And if you do lose your firearm, or if it’s stolen, you need to report that to the police immediately, including providing the serial number for that firearm so it can be entered as lost or stolen,” Steiner said.
Steiner says so far, the gun hasn’t been reported stolen or missing. Police ran the semi-automatic through NIBIN, a ballistic evidence database. Police say it came back clear or not connected to any crime scene.
So where did the gun come from? And who does it belong to? That’s all part of the investigation.
“There is a shooting range that St Paul Police Department operates. We have spoken with the St Paul Police Department, and they do not have any reports of a missing firearm from their officers,” Steiner said.
Police say they sent the information to the ATF’s National Tracing Center to try to get an investigative lead. The trace may be delayed because of the government shutdown.
Investigators say if you come across anything that looks like a gun, call the police.
When asked if the owner could face charges, police say a negligence charge is possible in some cases, but only if a child finds the gun.
Three women stood together on stage at a town hall in Plymouth, Minnesota on Sunday, bound together by the tragedy their children experienced inside Annunciation Catholic School on August 27.
“I don’t want any other parent or family to feel this misery,” said Malia Kimbrell.
Kimbrell’s 9-year-old daughter Vivian was rushed to the hospital after over 100 bullets shattered the windows of Annunciation Catholic School. Vivian was shot multiple times. Now, Vivian is recovering at home and Kimbrell is advocating for a ban on assault weapons.
“It’s more mental health resources and safer gun storage and better background checks and detecting potential threats online and improved security measures and banning assault weapons,” Kimbrell said Sunday. “If the next mass shooting happens at your child’s school, what type of weapon are you comfortable with the shooter being armed with?”
The group was brought together by Democratic Rep. Kelly Morrison as a town hall focused on gun violence prevention, for members of Minnesota’s third district.
“By taking action, that’s how we honor Harper, Fletcher and all the lives taken by gun violence,” said Carla Maldonado.
Maldonado has two children at Annunciation and described the panic she felt after she and her husband heard the gunshots that morning from their home nearby.
“We cannot accept a world where civilians have access to weapons designed for battlefields,” Maldonado said.
Stephanie Moscetti, a mother of two, also shared her fear that day. Saying her children are changed, espeically her son who was friends with Fletcher Merkel, an 8-year-old boy who was killed in the attack.
“My son was an honorary pallbearer at his friends funeral, how is this our reality?” Moscetti questioned. “Our kids deserve safe schools, they deserve safe childhoods where they can play and learn.”
Gov. Tim Walz has vowed to call a special session to address the issue, though a date has not been set.
If a bill is presented, the legislation would need the support of both democrats and republicans.
House Republicans previously released their list of policies to consider in a special session, which included school security grants, more funding for mental health beds and mandatory minimum prison sentences for repeat gun offenders.
A few parents of Annunciation victims had the chance to speak with Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance during their visit to Minneapolis on Wednesday.
An emotional moment of explanation and a call to action after Lydia Kaiser’s parents met with Vice President Vance.
Statement’s from Lydia Kaiser’s parents, Leah and Harry Kaiser
Leah Kaiser’s letter:
Hello. My name is Leah Kaiser. I am Lydia Kaiser’s mother.
I have given a lot of thought about speaking publicly and have decided I have something to say.
First, I want to say to Jackie, Mike, Jesse and Molly—my heart hurts for you and for your pain of losing your beautiful children, Harper and Fletcher. Harry and I and so many others are with you in your grief.
I want to thank Father Zehren, Principal DeBoer, and the teachers- for protecting our little ones. And the amazing first responders and hospital staff for bringing us to safety and treating our injuries.
All of us—moms, teachers, you reporters and vice presidents- we all have an obligation to use this moment, as Principal DeBoer said when he quoted an African proverb—”when you pray, move your feet”.
Vice President Vance—you have enormous authority, please use this moment to move your feet and transcend our political divides to promote peace, and unity and hope. This is what the people of the United states will hold you accountable to. This Annunciation Community is a force of good in the world and we invite you to be the same.
On the sidewalk in front of the boarded up windows of the church, someone wrote the prayer of St. Francis—which says:
Make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me bring love
Where there is injury, pardon
Where there is despair, hope
Where there is darkness, light
And where there is sadness, only Joy.
That’s it. That’s all I wanted to say.
Harry Kaiser’s letter:
Mr. Vice President,
Thank you for coming to see Lydia. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity for my kids to meet a vice president. And for the sake of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel and Lydia and Sophia and all my students I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of having your ear for a moment. We disagree about so many things. We both know both sides, and all the talking points we fall back on.
But on just this one issue of gun violence will you please promise me as a father and a Catholic that you will earnestly support the study of what is wrong with our culture that we are the country that has the worst mass shooter problem? We were at Mass, singing about being called to act with justice, love, service and humility. Will you please promise to pursue, despite powerful lobbies, some common sense bipartisan legislation as a starting point, so we can come out of our corners and find the values that we share so that this time some progress is made? Thoughts and prayers haven’t been enough; many policies have been dismissed without even being studied or tried. It’s so complicated. I don’t claim to have the answers but we have to commit to looking. Then we can feel good about defending life. If one thing changes for the better, perhaps Fletcher’s and Harper’s deaths and all the injuries and destruction might bring about even more unity, love, and light than I have already seen this past week. One law, one executive order, one policy. You can call it the Annunciation Bill. Then I’ll be able to look Lydia and Sophia and all my students in the eye and say I tried.
Sincerely,
Harry Kaiser
A GoFundMe account says Lydia was hurt while protecting a younger student and was taken to the hospital in serious condition. Lydia’s father shares a deep connection with the school, he’s Annunciation’s gym teacher.
Vice President Vance recognizes the calls for change
“There’s a strong desire from across the political spectrum to do something so these shootings are less common,” the Vice President told reporters.
Before meeting with the Kaiser family, the Vice President and Second Lady, who are both catholic, laid flowers at the Annunciation Church memorial. Officials say the couple also visited its sanctuary where the shooting occurred and were met with protesters nearby. The visit continued with a private meeting with the parents of Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moyski, who died in the attack.
“These parents opened up their lives, opened up their hearts. They told me about their kids. They told me about their families, they told me about the community supporting them,” said Vance.
As a father to three, he explained how he’ll honor the families.
“By being a better dad.. and hugging my kids tight tonight and making sure they know their dad loves them. Because there are two families that aren’t going to get that opportunity ever again,” Vance added.
Frankie McLister, originally from Middletown, Maryland, holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism.
A mom who lost her son in the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, 13 years ago, and is now the CEO of Sandy Hook Promise, says red flag laws can help save lives.
“We advocate for things like extreme risk protection orders which in time we’ll figure out if that could have been used here to help prevent this tragedy,” Nicole Hockley said.
Minnesota does have a red flag Law. It allows family, law enforcement or city and county attorneys to ask for an Extreme Risk Protection Order or ERPO. The law is designed to take guns out of the hands of people in a moment of crisis. They can petition the court to have a person’s guns removed or to temporarily prohibit someone from buying a gun for a period of time
In the first year of the law in Minnesota, which was 2024, 138 petitions were filed for people who were at risk of hurting themselves or someone else. A judge granted a petition to remove a gun or restrict the ability to buy one most of the time. It ranged from 14 days to one year. Some of those have been extended.
A family member, usually who lives in the same house, can file a petition. It can also be a parent or child. It extends to law enforcement and a county or city attorney. A family member can bring their concerns to law enforcement to have them do it. That’s the most common way a petition has been filed and approved.
In 2024, the first year someone could raise a red flag, we discovered 5 instances where a petition was filed on someone who threatened to shoot people at a school or daycare, or mentioned a school shooting or shooter. Some of the threats were in person, others caught online. In these cases, we found they were all filed by police or a county attorney’s office. An ERPO was granted for the longest allowed time: one year.
One has been extended a year. In two of the cases, criminal charges were brought, and both people were convicted of threats of violence. One person was civilly committed following the petition.
Lawmakers say the goal of the red flag law is to save lives. Experts in this area say they believe this law is saving lives. Earlier this year, we spoke with Dr. Jillian Peterson, director of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center.
“There’s so many warning signs, especially if we look at school shooters. 91% of the time they tell somebody that they’re planning on doing it. And so people know this, but it’s not a crime to say you’re thinking about doing something. And so law enforcement’s hands are tied in a lot of these cases,” said Peterson. “So I think having a resource to get firearms away from that person just in that moment of crisis. And we know you should not have immediate access to firearms in that moment. 100% I think it has the ability to save lives.”
If someone is in immediate danger, experts say to call 911.
Jennifer Mayerle happily returned to Minnesota and WCCO, where she began her career as a summer intern. The Emmy and Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist returned to WCCO as a reporter in 2014 and later also anchored WCCO Saturday Morning for 6 years. Then in early 2024 she focused on her new role as Senior Investigative Reporter.
Loudoun County Public Schools will update its student handbook with information about parents’ legal obligation to safely secure guns.
Loudoun County Public Schools will update its student handbook with information about parents’ legal obligation to safely secure guns, as part of a resolution the school board passed Tuesday night.
The Gun Safety Storage Resolution, which board members in the Northern Virginia district approved unanimously, comes in the aftermath of recent school shootings in Georgia and Maryland, plus a series of unsubstantiated threats to schools in Loudoun.
Those incidents, board member April Chandler said, have prompted community members to inquire about what more can be done to keep schools safe.
“There’s no denying that the fear of gun violence at school has an impact on our students,” Chandler said. “This fear is hurting our kids.”
In Virginia, it’s against the law for anyone to leave a loaded, unsecured firearm out in a way that could endanger a child under 14 years old. The penalty for doing that is a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Now, as part of the resolution, the school division will update the student handbook with information about parents’ responsibility to safely secure guns.
A notification will also be sent to parents and guardians, detailing why it’s important to store guns securely and explaining the legal obligation to protect kids from guns that aren’t stored properly.
“The facts show that a lot of people are not responsibly storing their firearms in a safe way,” board member Anne Donohue said. “Which is why I think it is appropriate for the division to put out some of that information to the community, just like we do about the opioid crisis, the mental health crisis, just like we do about other threats to the safety and security of our children and the families in our county.”
Information won’t be collected from parents, Chandler said. The school district also isn’t collecting information about gun ownership, she added.
“It’s a nearly no-cost communication to educate the community,” Chandler said. “Now is not the time to play politics with student safety.”
During Tuesday night’s meeting, Chandler cited data from a 2023 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics that found guns are the leading cause of death for American children and teens.
“People safe-storing their guns is common sense,” board member Lauren Shernoff said. “I know we’ve said that before, but this is an opportunity for us to work together as a community and a school division to say we’re committed to keeping kids safe.”
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A gun range may feel like a world away from a doctor’s office, but some medical professionals in Wisconsin are training at one to save lives by learning about firearms.
“I felt like I had a real deficit in talking about firearms with patients,” said Dr. James Bigham, a primary care doctor and professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine.
Bigham runs a class for medical students and staff about the basics of firearms at Max Creek Gun Range, alongside shop and gun owner Steve D’Orazio.
“That’s part of being a responsible gun owner is knowing right from wrong,” D’Orazio said.
During routine visits, Bigham asks patients about how they store their weapons at home.
“People may feel it’s too personal, but as a physician, I absolutely think I have the space to say, ‘We gotta be doing everything we can to protect our children, our communities,’” Bigham said.
When asked about criticism over whether physicians should have a role on the topic, Bigham said, “I think this is our lane. As a primary care doctor, if I’m willing to counsel you on alcohol consumption, tobacco use, how you’re driving your car, I gotta be talking about firearms as well.”
D’Orazio said he doesn’t believe it’s a Second Amendment issue.
“We have the right to bear arms. I sell guns. That’s the last thing I want to do is take away my guns. It’s not about taking away, it’s about safety and that’s it,” D’Orazio said.
Nearly 500 people a year die from accidental shootings, according to the National Safety Council. Suicides by guns are at an all-time high for adults, and suicide rates for children have risen dramatically, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Access to unlocked firearms in homes makes suicide nearly four times more likely, according to the Violence Prevention Research Group.
There are about 30 million children across the country living in homes with guns, the CDC says. Children as young as 3 years old may be strong enough to pull the trigger of a handgun, according to Safe Kids Worldwide.
That’s part of why pediatricians at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia say asking parents about safe gun storage is as important as asking about bike helmets and pool safety.
2023 had the highest number of unintentional shootings by children on record, with the victims most often being a sibling or friend of the shooter, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
Dr. Dorothy Novick is also teaching soon-to-be doctors on how to broach the triggering topic.
“All of the injury prevention, safety counseling that we offer, we now wrap firearms right into that conversation to really make it normal,” Novick said.
The children’s hospital provides gun locks to families to make their homes safer. Since they started five years ago, they say they’ve handed out close to 3,000 locks. Gun safes are the best method for locking up firearms, and the hospital plans to soon begin offering them to patients as well.
The hospital was motivated to implement the program following a surge of gun purchases during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Philadelphia alone, gun permit applications rose 600% in 2021, according to city records.
“This is really a conversation about safety. This is not a question about politics or ideology. And in fact, people from all across the ideological spectrum all agree that firearm safety is really a fundamental tenet of responsible firearm ownership,” Novick said.
Nikki Battiste is a CBS News national correspondent based in New York. She is an Emmy and Peabody-award winning journalist, and her reporting appears across all CBS News broadcasts and platforms.
The American Academy of Pediatrics urges doctors to discuss firearm safety with parents, but it’s a touchy subject that has medical professionals learning more about how to have those conversations. Nikki Battiste has more.
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RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — The Raleigh Police Department is continuing its push to address youth gun violence.
RPD held a free gun lock giveaway on Saturday at the Triangle Shooting Academy.
The goal was to make sure families in Wake County know why it’s important to store firearms securely, know how to do that and understand the legal consequences if they don’t.
Earlier this week, the Wake County School Board passed a resolution on safe gun storage.
WATCH | Wake County school board passes safe gun storage resolution
The resolution directs staffers in Wake County schools to “provide families with information and resources on the importance of secure gun storage.”
This comes amid a growing movement across the country for school boards.
The resolution cited a few statistics:
1,200 children and teens die by gun suicide each year, most often using guns belonging to a family member
Every year, an average of 350 children under the age of 18 unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else. That’s nearly one unintentional shooting per day, and more than 70 percent of these incidents take place inside a home
To learn more about the resources Wake County schools are providing to families, click here.
More than 60,000 gun safes were recalled nationwide on Thursday following dozens of reports that unauthorized people could open them, including a 12-year-old boy who died after allegedly accessing a gun inside, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced.
Illinois-based Fortress Safe recalled 61,000 gun safes after 39 reports that a flaw in the safes’ biometric feature made it seem like they were locked for unauthorized users, but actually remained in “default to open” mode. The recall urged safe owners to immediately stop using the biometric feature and to lock the safes with a key instead. It also told customers to contact Fortress Safe for information on how to receive a replacement safe.
“The safes contain a biometric reader that allows unpaired fingerprints to open the safe until a fingerprint is programmed, allowing unauthorized persons, including children, to access hazardous contents, including firearms,” the company said.
Carson Preston, 12, died of a gunshot wound after accessing a gun stored in a Fortress Safe gun safe, his family’s lawsuit alleges.
Preston family via Claggett & Sykes Law Firm
Fortress Safe said it was aware of a lawsuit filed this year alleging that a 12-year-old Nevada boy, Carson Preston, had died after accessing a gun from one of the company’s safes.
According to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by HuffPost, Casey Preston, Carson’s father, had purchased the model 44B20 Fortress gun safe in March 2021 from the sporting goods store Scheels.
On Jan. 28, the gun safe allegedly failed by allowing Carson, an unauthorized user, to access a handgun inside. According to the lawsuit, the safe was initially shipped in a state that allowed it to be opened with any fingerprint.
As a result, Carson sustained a “lethal gunshot wound to the head,” according to the lawsuit.
In a statement to HuffPost, Josh Dowling of Claggett & Sykes, the law firm representing the Preston family, said that “responsible gun owners should be able to rely on gun safes to protect their families.”
“Our clients experienced every parent’s worst nightmare when their son was able to access their firearm because of the defective design of the Fortress gun safe,” Dowling said. “This recall is an important first step in holding Fortress responsible for placing a defective gun safe on the market. This recall reassures our clients that this was not their fault, and we hope it will prevent this type of tragedy from happening again.”
The lawsuit also claims that Scheels had received reports and complaints from customers and individuals who said the gun safe was defective, but that the retailer continued to sell and advertise it.
According to court documents obtained by HuffPost, Scheels denied those allegations, adding that the gun safe was “not in an unreasonably dangerous or defective condition” when it was sold. The company has filed a counterclaim against the Preston family, alleging that the child’s parents may be responsible for his death, and is seeking damages of more than $15,000 as well as attorneys’ fees.
A representative for Scheels did not respond to HuffPost’s request for comment. Fortress Safe declined to comment.
Fatal injury rates have spiked over the past decade for children and teens in the U.S., especially deaths involving guns and drugs, according to new research published in the journal Pediatrics Thursday.
Using injury data for children under age 18 from 2011 to 2021 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers found firearm fatalities increased by 87.1% during that time period. Drug poisoning fatalities increased by 133.3%, and suffocation-related fatalities increased by 12.5%.
“Recent trends in pediatric injury-related fatalities are alarming, with increases in homicides, suicides, and poisonings in the past decade,” the authors write.
Nonfatal firearm and poison-related injuries also increased — up 113.1% and 9.9%, respectively.
At the same time, the rates of nonfatal injuries within the same age group decreased in several other categories from 2011 to 2020, including a 52.8% decline in injuries from falls and a 47.3% decrease in motor vehicle occupant injuries. Injuries from drownings stayed the about same.
“The divergent trends between fatal and nonfatal injuries highlight the need for a comprehensive approach to childhood injury prevention,” the study notes.
But the opposite is the case for firearms and drug poisonings.
“Despite the progress in reducing most nonfatal injuries, the trends in increasing nonfatal firearm and poisoning injuries defy the overall trend in nonfatal injuries, in part because public health legislative support has lagged in these critical injury mechanisms,” they write. “This is especially concerning given the high case fatality rate of these injury mechanisms in children.”
In addition to more research, the authors urged the need for stronger legislation, enhanced public awareness, and improved health care systems to address both fatal and nonfatal injuries among children.
When Caleb Morse got a call from his Army buddy he served with in Iraq announcing he was in Louisiana, he had a feeling something was wrong.
He couldn’t understand why his buddy, who lived in Colorado Springs, had suddenly shown up in the South. Morse says he told him, “Man, like, I love having you here. And my wife and kids love seeing you and everything else. And you’re great to be around, but you would never move to Louisiana.”
Caleb Morse joined the 2nd Infantry Division Special Troops Battalion in 2003. He served two tours in Iraq.
courtesy Caleb Morse
A few days later his friend showed up at Rustic Renegade, a gun shop and shooting range that Morse, 39, had opened in Lafayette, Louisiana, about a year earlier in 2018 after leaving the military where he served in the combat unit 2nd Infantry Division Special Troops Battalion. His friend arrived with his car and his dog. He opened the trunk and started to unload his car, Morse recalled. He started to bring all these guns inside the shop, Morse said,” And I’m like, brother, what are you doing?”
Morse knew from his time in the military that often when people start giving away their things they can be considering suicide.
He knew his friend was in a bad spot so Morse asked him to sit, but “I grabbed two cups of coffee and when I came back he was gone.”
He didn’t answer Morse’s calls — “he had left cold, he didn’t answer his phone” — but Morse still had his firearms. He decided to hold them at Rustic Renegade in case his friend ever came back.
Six months passed. Finally, his friend called and explained he had been in a bad spot and wondered where his guns were. Morse said he told him, “They’re your guns, man. They’re yours, you may want them back. And whenever you’re ready, they’re here for you.”
More than half of all gun-related deaths in the United States are suicides, according to the Centers for Disease Control. In 2022, the CDC reported that 26,993 people died by firearm suicide. Deaths by gun suicide are at an all-time high and have steadily increased, nearly uninterrupted, since 2006 according to researchers at John Hopkins School of Public Health.
In the veteran population the problem is acute; in its 2022 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Report, the Department of Veterans Affairs found that the suicide rate in 2020 was 57.3 % greater for veterans.
Guns are more commonly involved among veteran suicides, at 71%, than the rest of the population, at 50.3%, according to the CDC.
Somehow, another veteran a short time later came into Morse’s shop and told Morse he, too, was in a bad spot. The veteran asked Morse to hold his guns at Rustic Renegade. Morse decided to set up a system that logged the guns into the store’s books and gave the veteran a receipt and told him to pick up his firearms when he felt better. Morse said he thought nothing of it. Other veterans dropped off guns “about a dozen times,” in just over a year he said, when he got a call from Gala True.
True, an associate professor at Louisiana State University School of Medicine who researches community-engaged efforts to prevent veteran suicides, met Morse in 2021. She was coordinating with firearms retailers interested in providing options for those in crisis who wanted to store firearms outside their homes.
The Armory Project was launched in Louisiana in 2021 with three retailers interested in providing storage. There are now 11 retailers that offer storage according to the map built by the network.
courtesy The Armory Project
“We try to create time and distance between a person having a mental health crisis and a loaded firearm,” True said. The Armory Project was launched in Louisiana in 2021 with three retailers interested in providing storage. Through a Veterans Administration grant, True and her team provided infrastructure and resources to the firearms retailers to build networks and partnerships.
Louisiana joined nine other states including Colorado, New Jersey, Mississippi, Maryland and Washington in the growing number of communities that have developed temporary storage off-site for firearms. In 2018, Colorado built its first statewide map showing storage or places considering storage. Other states have followed by building detailed online maps that show retailers that can temporarily hold firearms. The Biden Administration has supported off-site storage for suicide prevention.
Suicide prevention experts know people in crisis who don’t have easy access to a gun will not likely find another way to kill themselves. Suicide prevention expert Mike Anestis, Executive director of the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center and a professor at Rutgers University, said no other methods are as “close to as lethal as firearms for a suicide death.” Around 90 to 95% of suicide attempts with a firearm will result in death while less than 5% of all other attempts will result in death, he said.
In a country that already has an estimated 400 million guns in circulation the solution just can’t be about banning firearms or stopping people from buying them, said Anestis.
Anestis said outside storage is a public health approach similar to approaches with issues like drunk driving is to “take the keys” – and limit access.
“We’ve learned the best way to prevent the outcome that you’re trying to avoid, is to limit the individual’s access to the method that can cause that outcome,” said Anestis.
Gun owners have to be able to make decisions that allow them to retain control over their autonomy, as well as fits their values, said Anestis. Outside storage can be a legal — and truly effective — way to prevent injury and death, he said. Temporary storage also serves as a solution for firearm owners who might not want a gun in their home for various reasons, such as a grandchild visiting or if a teen or other family member inside the home is struggling.
True and Morse both say for these programs to succeed, gun shops need to be able to participate – so gun owners can feel they have a safe place to store their firearms. Gun owners generally can’t just hand over their firearms to anybody they want. Federal law doesn’t prohibit people from storing guns for each other on a personal basis, but each state has various regulations saying who can hold onto a gun and who is liable.
Some states, such as Washington and Vermont, allow immediate or extended family members to hold onto guns if a family member is in crisis. But other states, such as New York or Massachusetts, prohibit the transfer of any firearms. And since states have such a patchwork of laws, researchers – and firearms shops – feel those shops can be the best repository for outside storage. But the businesses need to be protected, said True. She said one of the main questions firearm shop owners asked when the Armory Project launched was “If a person goes on to harm themselves, can the firearm retailer be sued and lose their business?”
Morse said when he first decided to start his program, he contacted a lawyer, who said, “No, no, you’re opening yourself to a ton of liability. What if you give them their firearm back and they kill themselves?”
Caleb Morse, 39, opened Rustic Reneagade, a gun shop in Lafayette, Louisiana after leaving the military. A veteran asked him to store his firearms at his shop in 2019 and Morse said he’s stored about 100 guns since then. He went to the state capitol with his wife to testify about safe storage.
courtesy Caleb Morse
Morse said he was going to store the guns anyway. He answered the lawyer: “I just want to give them a pause —that moment in time where they say, ‘Look, someone cares, maybe life isn’t so bad.’”
In Louisiana, the coalition worked to pass legislation that said gun shop owners wouldn’t be liable. The legislation passed “easily” with “very little concern,” said True. Coalitions in Texas and Oregon are trying to pass similar laws, she said.
In July 2023 the ATF issued an open letter to FFL and gun shops clarifying how to legally and safely store firearms for individuals.
One option is providing gun storage lockers at the gun shop that an individual can open and put their firearms inside. “In this situation, an FFL does not”receive “or “acquire ” the firearm into its inventory, nor does the FFL assume control of the individual’s firearm,” the letter said, which can reduce liability for gun shops that want to provide outside storage for others.
Morse said after two combat tours in Iraq, serving in the National Guard, and then working as a military contractor in Iraq for four years, essentially “running from my problems,” he fell into a depression returning home to Louisiana. Like many other soldiers, he struggled upon entering a society that often doesn’t understand military that served in combat. He said he survived due to the support of his wife, who is his high-school sweetheart, and his two children.
He said, “I know what it’s like to have that dark place. I know what it’s like to have that weight on your shoulders where you feel like you know what, I suck. You know, I failed.”
Since that first time, Morse says he’s stored about 100 firearms, if not more, for veterans who are thinking of hurting themselves or others, and installed outside storage lockers in his shop.
“And it’s been a blessing,” he said. “It’s been a big blessing to help people.”
WASHINGTON ― A proposed regulation announced Thursday by the Biden administration would require thousands of gun sellers to register with the federal government and conduct background checks of their customers.
A small part of the bipartisan gun law Congress passed last year broadened the definition of a “gun dealer” as a way of reducing the number of sales that don’t go through the background check system.
President Joe Biden ordered the Justice Department earlier this year to write the regulation so the government could get “as close as we can to universal background checks without new legislation.”
Only those who are “engaged in the business” of firearms have been required to register as federal firearms licensees, while people who don’t regularly sell guns, such as hobbyists, have been exempt.
The lack of background checks for so-called “private” transactions has been called the “gun show loophole,” though in recent years there have probably more such sales online than at gun shows. Background checks prevent gun sales to people who aren’t allowed to own guns under federal law, such as people convicted of violent crimes.
Steven Dettelbach, director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said an “increasing number” of people have been selling firearms for profit without registering.
“Instead, they have sought to make money through the off-book, illicit sale of firearms,” Dettelbach said in a statement Thursday. “These activities undermine the law, endanger public safety, create significant burdens on law enforcement, and are unfair to the many licensed dealers who make considerable efforts to follow the law.”
Under the new definition, a person would be said to be “engaged in the business” of firearms if their principal aim is to profit, “as opposed to other intents, such as improving or liquidating a personal firearms collection,” the law says. At the time it was drafted, it wasn’t clear how many people would be affected, since it would be up to the ATF to put it through regulation.
According to the text of the ATF’s proposed rulemaking, the broader definition of a gun seller would affect between 24,540 and 328,296 unlicensed dealers. There were 136,563 active federal firearms licensees in 2022, so the ATF is estimating that the regulation could greatly increase their ranks.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), one of the authors of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, told HuffPost earlier this year that the law’s expanding meaning of “engaged in the business” would basically fulfill Democrats’ goal of enacting universal background checks, though experts have said the change would not encompass all private gun sales. Democrats have said they still want to change the law to require universal checks.
Mark Collins, director of federal policy for Brady, a gun control group, said the new regulation would not be tantamount to universal background checks.
“In terms of whether or not it gets us to universal, I think it’s a big step closer to it,” Collins said. “But I would be hesitant to say that it gets us to complete universal without Congress acting.”
Under the proposed rule, a person would be considered “engaged” in the firearm business if they meet certain new criteria, including if they sell someone a gun while telling the buyer more are available; if they repeatedly purchase firearms for sale within 30 days; or if they’re reselling guns in their original packaging.
The public has 90 days to comment on the regulation before the government can begin to finalize it.
A bipartisan group of senators wrote the 2022 law in response to multiple mass shootings. Its main provisions enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21, created grants for states to enact “red flag” laws, and provided funds for school safety and mental health services.
Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the law’s main Democratic authors, praised the proposed regulation on Thursday.
“For too long, the ambiguous definition of what it means to be ‘engaged in the business’ allowed thousands of unlicensed dealers to sell guns without background checks,” Murphy said in a statement, adding that the change will “significantly increase the number of background checks performed and ensure more guns stay out of dangerous hands.”
As summer arrives, the risk of children unintentionally shooting themselves or others is on the rise.
Unintentional shootings happen most often when children are at home, according to the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety. The organization reviewed data from 2015 to 2022 and found that the highest number of unintentional child shootings per day occurred in July.
“We know that the vital organs of the body are much closer together in a child’s body. If they unintentionally shoot themselves or somebody else shoots a child, they’re more likely to have damage to multiple vital structures which obviously increases the risk of long-term disability or death,” Dr. Lois Lee, who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention, said in an interview. “And also, because of the way their blood volume is, they can have much more serious consequences with much less blood loss than an adult.”
Some might assume that toddlers and young children may not be strong enough to pull a trigger, but that is not the case, experts said. At least 895 children aged five and under have managed to find a gun and unintentionally shoot themselves or someone else from 2015 to 2022, according to Everytown.
A 1995 study found that 25% of 3- to 4-year-olds, 70% of 5- to 6-year-olds and 90% of 7- to 8-year-olds have a two-finger trigger-pull strength of at least 10 pounds. More than 62% of the 64 handguns reviewed in the study required trigger-pull strength of less than 5 pounds.
Children are generally stronger than many adults assume, Dr. Eric Fleegler, a pediatric emergency physician and researcher with Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, said. Their short limbs also play a role in how dangerous guns can be if they access them.
“They’re holding stuff against their body,” Fleegler said. “When they pull the trigger, whether it’s pointing toward their face or pointing towards their belly or pointed toward wherever it is, it’s still going to cause injury, harm and most likely death because of the very nature of how small a child is.”
While Everytown was not able to determine the type of gun used in each incident they recorded, handguns were used in 86% of the incidents with available firearm information. Pistols, which are the most popular type of firearm in the U.S., require different amounts of force to pull the trigger and make the gun fire. Depending on the model, handguns can require as little as 1.5 pounds of pressure on the trigger.
Haley Rinehart’s son Eli was 4 when he accidentally shot himself in the head in April of 2022. Doctors told Rinehart at the time that without emergency surgery, her son would die. He lost his right eye, a portion of his temporal lobe and his right temporal bone. Eli needed to learn how to walk again and had to relearn hand-eye coordination. He now has a fake eye and a big, horseshoe shaped scar on his head.
Rinehart’s son was injured by a handgun while visiting his grandparents. He found the gun on top of a stack of children’s books, Rinehart said. Though he had been told not to touch guns, he said wanted to see the “missile” —what he called a bullet— inside. His finger hit the trigger and the gun discharged, sending a bullet into the right corner of his right eye. It exited behind his right ear.
Rinehart knew her former in-laws had guns, but she had never seen them out. Her ex-mother-in-law worked as a correction officer at a women’s prison in Louisville, Kentucky, and her ex-father-in-law also had guns. She remembers always asking about guns to make sure none were out when her kids were there.
“They would always joke about it like I was being silly like ‘oh, they’re not going to touch that,’” Rinehart said.
Rinehart wasn’t there when her son was shot. Her now ex-husband had taken their children to visit his parents.
A smart gun prototype that only fires when paired with a smart watch was shown by the company Armatix at a conference in Germany in 2010. (JOERG KOCH/AFP/Getty Images)
No criminal charges were ever filed in the case. To this day, Kentucky has no safe storage laws for guns.
Federal law does, in most cases, prohibit anyone under 18 from owning a handgun. Around 4.6 million minors in the U.S. live in homes with at least one loaded, unlocked firearm, according to Gifford Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. Four-in-ten U.S. adults say they live in a household with a gun, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in June 2021.
“Having a gun in your home is a major risk factor for a fatality of a child in that house,” Fleegler said.
It’s essential to keep a gun locked separately from ammunition, which should also be locked, Fleegler and Lee said. In their experience, guns are often objects of curiosity that children will try to access. They both agreed that talks about safety with young children are not enough to keep them away from guns.
“They are incapable of understanding necessarily actions and consequences in a way that will stick in their brains permanently,” Lee said.
Rinehart, who said she lived in an area where guns were almost “next to God,” said her son had been told not to touch guns. He had also been told that if he saw a gun, he should tell an adult.
“He was curious and curiosity outweighed momma’s words of wisdom, I guess,” Rinehart said.
Firearms are regulated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF.), but there are no real product safety requirements specific to guns.
“The manufacturers are negligent,” Fleegler said. “They are being negligent in the fact that they are not designing these guns in such a way to decrease harm.”
Some gun safety advocates have called for the manufacture and sale of smart guns that require biometric fingerprint technology to activate the trigger. An estimated 37% of unintentional pediatric deaths could be avoided through the use of personalized firearm technology, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported.
The NRA, which says it doesn’t oppose the development of smart guns, does oppose any law prohibiting Americans from acquiring or owning firearms that don’t possess smart gun technology.
Fleegler said he feels smart technology for guns is the way to move forward.
“There is absolutely no reason that a child, a young child or a teenager should be able to get access to somebody else’s gun and be able to use it to cause harm,” Fleegler said. “These are totally preventable deaths, 100%.”
For Rinehart, prevention starts by asking questions. She always tries to find out if someone has guns in their home and, if they do, how they’re stored.
“I want to know that my kids are going to be safe and protected if they go somewhere,” Rinehart said.
Rinehart, who acts as an advocate for Moms Demand Action, emphasizes safe storage. She carries around and shares informational cards from Be SMART, an organization advocating for safe gun storage. She said that while talking about gun safety with kids is important, the onus should be on adults to keep firearms away from children.
“We don’t need to put that on the kids, the responsibility is on the adults,” she said.
Sen. Mark Kelly tells “Face the Nation” that while the 2022 bipartisan Safer Communities Act was a “step in the right direction,” it’s “only one step. There is more we can do.”
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Nearly one in five American adults say they have had a family member who was killed by a gun, including suicides, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Roughly the same number (21%) said they have been personally threatened with a gun, the study found.
People of color were more likely to report witnessing gun violence or having family members who were killed by guns. More than one-third of Black adults said they had a family member who was killed by a gun, compared with 17% of White respondents and 18% of Hispanic adults who participated in the study.
Three in ten Black adults and one in five Hispanic adults said they had personally witnessed someone being shot, according to the study. A little more than one in five (22%) of Hispanic adults said they had seen someone being shot.
Black adults were also more likely to report feeling unsafe in their neighborhoods.
“While most adults overall say they feel either “very” (41%) or “somewhat” (41%) safe from gun violence in their neighborhoods, significant shares say they feel “not too safe” (13%) or not safe at all (5%),” KFF said in a statement announcing the results of the study. “One in six Black adults (17%) don’t feel at all safe in their neighborhoods, far greater than the share of White (2%) or Hispanic (9%) adults.”
Black (32%) and Hispanic adults (33%) were also a little more than three times more likely to report worrying daily or almost daily that a family member will become a victim of gun violence than White adults (10%).
The study found that 41% of all adults said they lived in a household with guns. Of those with guns in the home, 75% said the guns were “stored in ways that don’t reflect some common gun-safety practices,” KFF said.
“Specifically, about half (52%) say that a gun in their home is stored in the same location as ammunition; more than four in 10 (44%) say that a gun is kept in an unlocked location; and more than a third (36%) say that a gun is stored loaded,” KFF said.
For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@nami.org.
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