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Mpls mass shooting: Push for stronger red flag laws
Advocates including doctors and law makers are pushing for stronger red flag laws in Minnesota after the tragic mass shooting in Minneapolis. FOX 9's Corin Hoggard has the latest.
(FOX 9) - For the second time in almost exactly a year, a mass shooting is putting pressure on lawmakers and leaving medical professionals questioning whether anyone is listening.
Minnesota gun laws
What we know:
Dr. Tim Kummer left Back to School Night on Wednesday and reported for duty at a mass shooting — this time, treating victims of Carlton Johnson II a year after being the first doctor on the scene at Annunciation Church.
"We are good at this," said Dr. Tim Kummer, an emergency room doctor at Hennepin Health Care. "And it is devastating that we've needed to be so good at it."
Court documents confirm Johnson made shooting threats in 2018 and 2023, and he was accused again in a couple of incidents just this summer.
The backstory:
Minnesota's red flag law, passed in 2023, allows family members, roommates, romantic partners, law enforcement, and prosecutors to petition to temporarily restrict someone's access to firearms.
"And for reasons I don't fully understand, the guns were not taken out of his hands," said Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, who helped pass the state's red flag law.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty says her office considered filing for an extreme risk protective order after a June incident at the apartments involving Johnson, but he never pulled his weapon, and they found insufficient evidence to file for an extreme risk protective order (ERPO under the red flag law).
What they're saying:
Dibble says the shooting is a clear signal that the law needs to be strengthened.
"This tragedy tells us that we must strengthen that ERPO law and how it is used, make sure law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, families, communities have effective tools to intervene before threats become funerals," said Dibble.
The DFL majority in the state senate passed a wide-ranging gun safety bill this year that included an expansion of the red flag law, as well as bans on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. It stalled on party lines in the tied House.
Why you should care:
The stalled legislation has left Dr. Kummer feeling somewhat hopeless about whether the medical community's voices are being heard.
"There's a self-protective mechanism where we might just stop trying to bring the evidence," said Kummer. "I'm not sure anybody cares, and I'm not sure it's healthy for us to keep trotting out our trauma time after time if no one's going listen to us."
He was direct about where things stand for his colleagues.
"We're not OK. I'm not OK, none of us are OK," said Kummer.
According to the American Medical Association, emergency room doctors have the highest burnout rate of any medical specialty.
What we don't know:
It remains unclear whether Johnson's access to firearms could have been restricted based on the documented threats made in 2018, 2023 and the accusations this summer. Protect Minnesota’s Maggiy Emery called it a "disconnect."
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said the 2026 gun safety bill wouldn’t have helped. The path forward for the stalled gun safety legislation in the Minnesota House is also uncertain.