Gun Control After Texas School Massacre: What Minnesota Pols Say

MINNESOTA — The Texas school massacre has renewed calls in Minnesota and nationwide for bans on assault weapons similar to the one a gunman used last week to kill 19 children and two teachers.

President Joe Biden met a crowd chanting “do something” when he and first lady Jill Biden visited Uvalde, the scene of the 27th school shooting of 2022, and he responded, “We will,” but his power is limited without the cooperation of Congress.

That comes as an informal survey of the nation’s governors by The Associated Press showed wide divergence on whether gun control or hardened school security is the best approach.

EPLN reported that Minnesota's Democratic Gov. Tim Walz has called for the adoption of red flag laws, also called risk-based gun removal laws.

The laws, in effect in 19 states but not Minnesota, permit police or family members to petition a state court to order the temporary removal of firearms from a person who may represent a danger to others or themselves.

In the wake of the Uvalde massacre, Walz ordered all flags in Minnesota to be flown at half-staff.

"I am watching the news coming out of Texas in horror. This cannot continue," Walz tweeted on the day of the mass shooting. " Minnesota grieves with the parents and families of every child who was shot and killed in Uvalde today."

• Related: Governors Diverge On Gun Control, School Security Efforts

The AP said the Uvalde school shooting amplified Democratic governors’ call for more gun control, while Republicans who answered emphasized additional school security, including arming teachers. The news organization reached out to governors in all 50 states but heard back from only about half of them, primarily Democrats.

Some Democrats also favor specially trained school resource officers and hardening school security, but none of them favored arming teachers and staff as a deterrent to school shootings.

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers — a Democrat who is a former teacher, school superintendent and state education chief — told the AP he’s concerned arming teachers would make schools more dangerous. He also thinks it’s impractical to post security guards or police at every school building.

“There's not enough people to do it,” Evers told the AP, "and I'm not sure we want to turn our learning institutions into armed camps.”

The schism between Democrat and Republican governors on gun violence prevention mirrors the partisan split in Congress and many state capitols on how to best address a near-record-high number of gun-related deaths in the United States. Those statistics, for 2020 — the latest year for which data is available — also show that firearms were the leading cause of death among children for the first time.

Since 2019, the House of Representatives has twice passed legislation to expand criminal background checks for gun purchases, only to have the bills languish in the Senate amid heavy Republican opposition.

A bipartisan group of senators is meeting this week to come to agreement on how legislation to curb gun violence might look, The Hill reported.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky tasked Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn with negotiating with Democrats on the response to mass shootings. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut is the lead negotiator for Democrats.

Biden said Monday he was optimistic Cornyn may be able to bring the two parties to some agreement, calling him a “rational” policymaker.

“I think Sen. McConnell is a rational Republican. I think Cornyn is as well. I think there’s a recognition in their party that they — we can’t continue like this,” Biden said, referring to mass shootings at schools and other public places.

The bipartisan group includes Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) released a statement on the day of the Uvalde killings.

"This news is devastating," Klobuchar said. "As a mother, I cannot fathom the grief of the parents who lost children today or the fear of those who are waiting in hospitals with children who were injured. My heart breaks for the entire Robb Elementary community."

Klobuchar added: "It has been nearly a decade since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary and yet federal gun safety legislation has been repeatedly blocked. Thoughts and prayers are not enough. Only action will begin to solve this deadly crisis.”

On the day of the tragedy, U.S. Senator Tina Smith (D-MN) called the Uvalde shooting "horrific news" and said there were "no words" to describe what had transpired.

"The blockade of gun safety bills has caused an untold number of unnecessary deaths in this country," Smith said on social media.

There are signs that some Republicans are warming to the idea of a ban on assault weapons, among them Congressman Chris Jacobs of New York, who said he supports a ban on assault weapons, the type of gun used in the Buffalo supermarket shooting, where 10 people were gunned down on May 14.

Jacobs, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association in 2020, said at a news conference Friday:

“If an assault weapons ban bill came to the floor that would ban something like an AR-15, I would vote for it. So I want to be clear: I would vote for it.”

Jacobs also favors raising the minimum age to buy certain firearms to 21.

“Individuals cannot buy beer, they cannot get cigarettes until 21. I think it’s perfectly reasonable that the age limit at least for these highly lethal, high-capacity semi-automatic weapons should be 21,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.