Partisan fighting stymies Minnesota Senate's meeting on gun violence

DFL members chide GOP for failing to bring proposals

A workgroup hearing on gun violence devolved into partisan arguing as DFL lawmakers criticized their Republican colleagues for failing to bring forward proposals.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A second meeting of Minnesota lawmakers to consider proposals on dealing with gun violence in the wake of the Annunciation shooting made little progress as members failed to bridge the partisan divide.

DFL members criticized their Republican colleagues for failing to bring bills for consideration as the group met for a second day. At the same time, Republicans raised issues with communication failures and half baked proposals from the DFL.

Meetings on gun violence

The backstory:

At Monday's meeting, lawmakers heard emotional testimony from Annunciation Catholic School parents, who pushed lawmakers to do something to prevent another tragedy like the church shooting. The shooting at Annunciation Church on Aug. 27 left two students dead and 21 other children and staff members hurt.

The hearing also featured input from doctors, experts on gun violence, gun rights advocates, and religious leaders.

During Monday's meeting, lawmakers discussed several pieces of legislation aimed at taking on gun violence, including an assault weapon ban, increasing mental health services, and funding for a state Office of Gun Violence Prevention.

What we know:

During Wednesday's meeting, lawmakers reviewed several proposals, including the items brought forward during Monday's meeting. After each discussion, workgroup chair Sen. Ron Latz (DFL - St. Louis Park) gauged support for the piece of legislation, but grew increasingly frustrated as the bills failed to garner Republican backing. The senator was also upset that GOP members hadn't come to the meeting with their own proposals.

The situation started to boil over as lawmakers debated safe storage laws.

"I think that your characterization of the GOP is unfair," argued Sen. Keri Heintzeman after Senator Latz criticized GOP lawmakers for not bringing proposals. "You have had Senator Draheim suggest education, and you say, 'Oh, the answer's no.' You're saying absolutely no. You're labeling us as not being pro-safe storage. All of us agree safe storage is a good idea, right? We have a different idea of how to get there."

"I've been asking for proposals from the GOP at least since September 9th, when I personally spoke with Senator Johnson, notified him we were putting this working group together," responded Sen. Latz. "I wanted bipartisan, input and participation and soliciting of proposals."

Partisan divide

What they're saying:

Sen. Zaynab Mohamed (DFL-Minneapolis) questioned whether Republican members were only opposing legislation because it was being suggested by Democrats.

"In this body, we're in a workgroup to talk about the issue that happened in our community, gun violence," said the senator. "You don't want to talk about gun violence. Then we'll bring our funding for research on violence, which you all talk about how you condemn it. But you don't want to fund it. We'll bring funding for public safety, but you don't want to fund it. Why? Because it's coming from Democrats. You all want to say that we're not working in good faith, but we are."

The other side:

Republican lawmakers raised issues with some of the bills that they felt missed the mark or weren't entirely thorough. Sen. Eric Lucero accused Sen. Mohamed of violating decorum by questioning their motives without evidence.

"You have no idea why we're voting for or against aside from what we say," said Sen. Lucero. "And I think every single one of us has had has spoken very loud and clear. The proposals before us are either against the Constitution, they're not going to solve the problem, they are going after law-abiding citizens. They are not bringing direct solutions to safeguard our children in schools. They're not working to bring our communities safer. They're not focused on these other elements that are contributing factors. That is what we have said."

GOP senators also blamed poor communication from the DFL. First, they said they were given late notice to draft bills for the workgroup session. Then, before Wednesday's session, they were told they would only review legislation submitted at Monday's meeting.

GOP says they have bills in the works

GOP proposal:

To cap off the meeting, Sen. Andrew Mathews did submit a proposal, suggesting the state should fund school resource officers for any public or private school that wants one.

He argues this is the one thing that the legislature could do that would make the quickest difference. "I've kept trying to think through in my mind, what's the thing that we could do that could be the most immediate help," explained Sen. Mathews. "And this is what I keep coming back to. This is something that, if there was one in the local school tomorrow, our kids would be better off tomorrow than they were yesterday."

Speaking after the meeting, Senators Jeff Howe and Rich Draheim both indicated they had been working on bills.

Sen. Latz dismissed the criticism. "For them to come up afterward to say ‘we’ve had these proposals…' Well, why didn't you bring them forward for us to talk about them? In the age of AI, you can ask one query on your cell phone and in five seconds you'll have a thousand proposals for reducing gun violence. You couldn't pick three of them or five of them and put them on our agenda with a week's notice for us to talk about them?"

What's next:

Gov. Tim Walz has indicated he plans to call a special session for the legislature to tackle gun violence. It's unclear when that will take place.