On the Burnsville Shooting
Today, I write about today’s shooting in Burnsville, which claimed the lives of two police officers and a paramedic, while injuring another officer. I apologize if my tone is raw in this email; I drafted it immediately after having watched the press conference about the shooting and gun violence hits close to home for me.
My heart goes out to the first responders who were killed and badly injured and their families. I also want to send my condolences to the family victims who were trapped in the home during the event. I cannot imagine the fear and the trauma they must have suffered during the hours-long incident. They have my heart as well.
For more details, I encourage you to please read the Burnsville Legislators’ Statement on the Fatal Shootings in Burnsville and watch the press conference. It is important.
I am exhausted by the choruses of “thoughts and prayers” because so often they are followed by silent inaction. While we are still learning details about this shooting, too often, these tragedies are avoidable. This string of horrific incidents must cease. We must seek policy interventions and education and awareness efforts on current laws to curb gun violence.
It is my understanding that this incident began as a domestic violence call from a resident within the home. While Minnesota has robust prohibitions on firearm possession by domestic abusers, there is one glaring omission in state law: we have no requirement to remove guns from the location of a domestic violence incident. More than one in four homicides in the United States are related to domestic violence, and the use of firearms in domestic violence situations increases the risk that there will be multiple fatalities, like we saw today.
I call on current legislators to pass legislation that explicitly authorizes and requires the removal of firearms and ammunition at the scene of a domestic violence incident. If the legislature fails to act and pass this common sense reform, then I will vigorously carry this legislation in the House in 2025. Such a law will save lives.
There is more we can do. Minnesota has robust red flag laws and prohibitions on firearm possession by many different kinds of domestic abusers and misdemeanants. These are good laws, yet too few know how to interface with them. We can save lives, if we have the knowledge to do so.
Here are steps we can take as a community:
Educate ourselves on the state's new Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPOs), which went into effect January 1, 2024. These are commonly known as “red flag” laws.
Educate others about ERPOs and red flag laws.
Educate ourselves on who cannot possess a firearm (linked is the section regarding domestic misdemeanants).
Educate others about the different legal statuses that disqualify an individual from possessing a firearm.
Though we can do much good by increasing public awareness about the laws we already have in place, there is much more we could do in the legislature to protect Minnesotans.
As a legislator, I would:
Pass legislation that explicitly authorizes and requires the removal of firearms and ammunition at the scene of a domestic violence incident, if such a bill fails to pass this legislative cycle.
Support HF 3570 which would ban assault weapons by expanding upon a list of already-banned firearms within Minnesota. If HF3570 does not pass in the legislature in 2024, I would sponsor this legislation going forward.
Continue Representative Jamie Becker Finn's work to give teeth to our safe gun storage laws, imposing severe penalties on parents who fail to comply with gun storage laws, including fines and imprisonment.
Leverage my position to increase awareness about current laws on the books, which could save lives, like our state’s red flag laws and the different types of interventions a court can order, which may save lives.
Follow a collaborative governance model by working with community organizations to learn their needs in reducing gun violence.
Today was a tragedy. The best way we can honor the victims of today’s events is by giving them our thoughts and prayers… and then immediately following those up with direct action.
Be safe. Be well. Take care of each other.
