Annunciation parents’ pain dominates Minnesota Capitol gun violence hearing

To begin the working group he convened on gun violence Ron Latz led not with a guidelines proposal but a frightening personal experience as a St Louis Park City Council member In my first month on the city council I got a death threat on my voicemail because of action we were taking with regards to the deer population the DFL state senator announced What ensued after Latz s remarks on Monday was north of three hours of utterly gut wrenching population testimony in a packed Minnesota Senate Building hearing room Parents of the children shot two weeks ago at Annunciation Catholic School detailed not just learning of a shooting that killed two and injured people but the traumatic aftermath My children are not the same kids that I dropped off that morning testified Carla Maldonado parent of two Annunciation students They have nightmares They flinch at loud noises They scream for me with a panic in their voices that makes my heart hurt And lawmakers voiced their discomfort at being back at the Capitol and in the general eye three months after the fatal shooting of state Rep Melissa Hortman DFL-Brooklyn Park and assassination attempt on Sen John Hoffman DFL-Champlin Defense personnel at the hearing petitioned for identification from visitors But the state has not moved forward with larger shield precautions such as metal detectors at the Capitol or Senate Building It gave me pause to genuinely come in here at present Latz noted Between the searing testimony and the working group lacking authority to advance statute we don t know what was tangibly accomplished at Monday s hearing But it was a memorable scene What was different about the gun violence hearing Monday Hearings I have gone to at the Minnesota Senate Building are largely barren Even legislative analysts lobbyists and reporters whose job it is to keep track of these meetings often just watch the video feed But on Monday the room was packed with parents gun control advocates and foes and politicians including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and state Attorney General Keith Ellison Frey testified about a proposal to let cities ban guns on municipally-owned property Ellison advocated for a new law that could pass legal muster banning guns that do not have serial numbers Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey hugs Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday Sept in St Paul Minn Credit Ellen Schmidt MinnPost CatchLight Local Description for America But their testimony was overshadowed by those of parents as well as clinical professionals who treated Annunciation students Due to the smaller nature of children s bodies a single bullet can do an incredible amount of damage stated Dr Rachel Maureen Weigert a pediatric exigency medicine specialist at Children s Minnesota A bullet from an automatic rifle is designed to splinter into dozens of twisted metal shards which can instantly kill a child due to critical organ and blood vessel damage That is how Fletcher and Harper were murdered in their church that morning Malia Kimbrell mother of Vivian St Clair a apprentice at Annunciation Catholic Church and School who was shot listens after giving masses testimony during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday Sept in St Paul Minn Credit Ellen Schmidt MinnPost CatchLight Local Account for America Brock Safe the parent of an Annunciation participant teared up as he mentioned My -year-old daughter along with a multitude of others are left to cope with horrific images that only seasoned combat veterans experience on the battlefield Related Will Minnesota address gun violence more like Connecticut or Texas after shooting Lawmakers spoke with moral and religious fervor Sen Bonnie Westlin DFL-Plymouth mentioned her best friend killed himself with a gun and that she used the Hebrew spiritual practice of Mussar to cope Sen Eric Lucero R-Dayton announced that the predicament is not guns but the evil in people themselves who will kill with whatever weapon available Lucero cited the Book of Genesis where Cain used a large stone and not a gun to kill Abel Republican State Sens Andrew Mathews left Eric Lucero center and Jeff Howe listen as parents of Annunciation students give constituents testimony during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday Sept in St Paul Minn Credit Ellen Schmidt MinnPost CatchLight Local Assessment for America Despite the highly emotional tenor at no point did the working group veer into confrontation For example when Rob Doar senior vice president of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus testified against an assault weapons ban Latz effusively thanked him for his perspective Latz expressed hope that time would allow for Doar to speak up on other bills Doar did not testify again Where does this leave us in terms of changing Minnesota laws To review the Legislature adjourned this spring after it passed state budget bills and it is not scheduled to reconvene until February But the Legislature could reconvene before then if Gov Tim Walz calls a special session Since the Annunciation shooting Walz has repeatedly disclosed that an assault weapons ban is an urgent enough matter to order lawmakers back to St Paul Walz met again with legislative leaders Monday about the mechanics of a special session DFL State Sen Zaynab Mohamed speaks during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday Sept in St Paul Minn Credit Ellen Schmidt MinnPost CatchLight Local Overview for America In the meantime we have this working group launched by Latz and Sen Zaynab Mohamed DFL-Minneapolis whose district includes Annunciation The working group cannot vote to advance a bill unless the Legislature is called Related Walz s urgency to act on gun violence runs into political reality in divided Legislature The group can propose and debate bills and on Monday twelve promising new laws were considered One authored by Mohamed was a detailed proposal to outlaw different types of firearms that the lawmaker deemed as any ammunition feeding device with the limit to accept more than rounds This regulation addresses a narrow but deadly category of firearms that have repeatedly been used in mass shootings Mohamed commented Mohamed s bill went on to also ban high-capacity magazines which she defined as holding more than rounds of ammunition The bulk of the other legislative proposals ran less than a page and did not include ideas about how the law would be enforced or funded A group wearing Moms Demand Action shirts listens during a meeting of the Gun Violence Prevention Working Group at the Minnesota Senate Building on Monday Sept in St Paul Minn Credit Ellen Schmidt MinnPost CatchLight Local Description for America A scant smaller measures would appear to have bipartisan sponsorship including one Hoffman wrote to make impersonating a police officer a felony Hoffman let shooting suspect Vance Boelter into his home because Boelter allegedly commented that he was a police officer Hoffman is still recovering and did not attend Monday s meeting It s pretty helpful and it s something I d personally endorsement Latz revealed of the measure But it s not going to stop preponderance of the gun violence in our country The working group will meet for a second session Wednesday one that will be without general testimony The post Annunciation parents pain dominates Minnesota Capitol gun violence hearing appeared first on MinnPost