A Minnesota Senate working group met Monday morning to discuss a variety of proposed solutions to deter gun violence following a Minneapolis mass shooting last month.
The hearing is the first public meeting about policy changes since the shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School that left two dead and many injured last month. It could set the table for an anticipated special legislative session addressing violence prevention.
Family members whose children survived in the shooting and doctors who treated them spoke to the working group and implored them to act to restrict access to firearms, some breaking down in tears as they spoke.
“There's one thing that kept more kids from dying on August 27 and it wasn't a law or a policy. It was church pews,” Carla Maldonado told the group. Her two children were in the church when bullets rained down.
“This is not safety for our children. This is not protection for our communities. This is survival by chance, and our children deserve better than this,” she said. “Do not wait for another child to die. Do not wait for another mother to be sitting here again, telling you their story of fear, sorrow and grief. Because the mothers we will keep coming.”
Maldonado recounted running to the church after she and her husband heard gunshots from their home nearby. She said her children experience post-traumatic stress stemming from the shooting.
“What you need to do is to look into the eyes of my seven year old at night, and she looks at me and tells me she can't go to sleep because she's afraid there's a shooter in the house. This is our family's new reality, and this is a reality that so many of the families in our annunciation community are suffering,” Maldonado said. “The truth is, none of us, none of us will be the same after this.”
As they convened the meeting, lawmakers on the panel acknowledged that Minnesota is facing a difficult moment after grappling with the mass shooting and the assassination of House DFL Leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, in June.
“I don't think any of us wanted to be here. We're here because of another firearm tragedy in Minnesota. It's been a tough summer for Minnesotans,” Sen. Ron Latz, DFL-St. Louis Park, said.
Republican Sen. Jeff Howe of Rockville said his son had lived through a mass shooting at Rocori high school and helped locked down his classroom at the time. He said lawmakers should consider hardening school buildings against attacks and focus on boosting mental health supports.
“I think we're all here wanting the same thing. We want to protect each other,” he said. “We just need to figure out what that looks like in a collaborative effort to get there.”
Gov. Tim Walz held closed meetings with legislative leaders last week to assess what could advance in the narrowly divided Legislature and was set to hold another Monday afternoon. But Walz has said he said he plans to call lawmakers back no matter what and hoped to get them on the record on proposals to ban assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.
DFL members of the working group posted proposals highlighting where they might cast their focus. Measures filed as of Friday included plans to boost funding to the Minnesota violence prevention project research center and create a new office under the Minnesota Department of Health dedicated to preventing gun violence.
Other proposed policy changes would remove a state prohibition on local governments that prevents them from imposing their own restrictions on firearms. Mayors of larger Twin Cities metro area cities have called for the authority to take action on guns in the wake of the Annunciation Catholic Church and School shooting.
Additional measures would ban so-called ghost guns, which don’t have a serial number or that have a serial number removed or altered. Another that would require firearm training for those looking to buy a gun is also set to come up for consideration during Monday’s meeting.
Sen. John Hoffman, DFL-Champlin, filed a proposal increasing the penalties for impersonating a police officer. In June, Vance Boelter fired multiple rounds at Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, in their home after posing as a police officer. Boelter faces state and federal charges for injuring the Hoffmans and killing the Hortmans.
The working group can’t take official actions like advancing legislation because the Legislature isn’t in session. But testimony and lawmaker discussion about the proposals could shape what moves forward in a special session or during the 2026 regular session, which begins in February.
