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Parents of students who survived the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting late last month testified before a panel of state lawmakers on Monday, imploring them to take action on gun control measures in wake of the attack.
It was the first meeting of a Minnesota Senate work group focused on addressing gun violence, which lawmakers established in the days after a gunman opened fire while students and teachers attended Mass to kick off the school year. Two children, 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel, were killed, and 21 others, mostly children and three adults, were injured.
Gov. Tim Walz has vowed he will call a special session of the Legislature soon to address gun safety and has met privately with legislative leaders in the closely divided Capitol to find agreement. The work group on Monday discussed a slate of proposals that could be considered when lawmakers return to St. Paul, including mandatory firearms training before purchase, a new state office focused on gun violence prevention, safe storage requirements and ghost guns regulations.
But top of mind for the five Annunciation parents who testified was a ban on semiautomatic assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“You have the power to decide what the next mass shooter will or will not be armed with. You have the power to make a difference and have a positive impact on the safety of our kids,” said Malia Kimbrell, mother of 9-year-old Vivian St. Clair, who was shot twice in the back and once in the arm. “I beg you take responsibility and don’t let this opportunity pass you by. Our kids deserve a future filled with hope.”
Carla Maldonado, who has two children at Annunciation, described the panic she felt after she and her husband heard the gunshots that morning from their home nearby. She said her kids are fundamentally changed because of what they witnessed that day — they have nightmares and now flinch at loud noises.
“You don’t need data. You don’t need research. You need to look in the eyes of my 7-year-old at night who looks at me and says she can’t sleep because she’s afraid there’s a shooter in the house,” Maldonado, a trauma therapist, said through tears. “This is our family’s new reality and this is the reality that so many families in our Annunciation community are suffering.”
It’s unclear what will have the votes to clear the Legislature, where any bill will need the support of both Democrats and Republicans in order to pass. On Monday, the dozen bills lawmakers walked through were DFL-backed plans.
House Republicans previously released their list of policies to consider in a special session, none of which would put additional restrictions on firearms. They pitched school security grants, more funding for mental health beds, mandatory minimum prison sentences for repeat gun offenders and more.
Rob Doar, senior vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, testified that there is no indication that any of the proposals put forward would have prevented the shooting. The shooter legally purchased the firearms, he noted.
Among the three guns the shooter had was a semiautomatic rifle, according to court documents. Police said they recovered 116 rounds at the scene.
Doar urged lawmakers to instead expand access to resources for a person experiencing a mental health crisis.
“I am less interested in bickering over what specific design feature of a firearm makes it more dangerous or less dangerous, and more interested in trying to find solutions that can identify somebody who’s in crisis, connect them to resources, divert them from violence, long before they start whatever journey of harm that they are seeking to inflict,” he said. “I think that’s going to get 201 votes in this legislature and can actually make a big difference in protecting families in our public places.”
In 2023, when they controlled both chambers at the Capitol, Democrats approved expanding background checks and a “red flag” law that enables a judge to temporarily suspend someone’s access to firearms if determined to be a harm to themselves or others.
Additional proposals, like a safe storage law and reporting of missing or stolen firearms to law enforcement, failed to get the necessary support to pass the DFL-led Senate due to some of their own members’ concerns. An assault weapons ban never even received a hearing.
Brittany Haeg, whose 6-year-old son David lacerated his spleen in the shooting, shared that her son is making a physical recovery but is experiencing emotional trauma that she called “terror he has no words for.”
She argued other measures that attempt to bolster school safety that don’t meaningfully change gun laws fall short.
“Proposals that fail to address access to weapons are band-aids at best. Hardening schools is not the answer. Locking down schools further, putting [school resource officers] in more schools, arming teachers would not have prevented my son’s injuries,” she said. “Bulletproof glass covering our stained glass is a visible admission of defeat in the face of incomprehensible, preventable violence. These kids knew what to do. They did the drills. They followed the procedures. It didn’t save them.”
Lawmakers are set to return for the regular session in February. Walz indicated he would make a decision to call a special session in a few weeks after meeting with legislative leaders.
The Senate work group will convene again on Wednesday to further discuss the proposals. They cannot take formal votes to advance the legislation, but can make recommendations.
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Caroline Cummings
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