Around 40 Minneapolis residents gathered in Meraki’s vaulted room filled with couches and reading chairs on Sept. 25 to talk about what comes next after a state gun violence prevention work group ended without action.

The evening event titled “Gun Violence Prevention in Minnesota: An Update and Community Conversation” was organized by Southwest Alliance for Equity with support from Moms Demand Action and Everytown for Gun Safety.

Annunciation School parent Tim Havel, gun violence survivor Jami Dickson, Rep. Jamie Long, Rep. Samantha Sencer-Mura, Ward 11 City Council candidate Jamison Whiting, and Everytown for Gun Safety manager Jess DeWeerth all spoke about why they are in the fight to end gun violence.

Many of the people at Meraki also attended or testified at the Minnesota Senate’s Gun Violence Prevention Working Group on Sept. 15.

The senate work group was convened after the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church on Aug. 27 to discuss possible gun violence prevention legislation and to see what legislation would garner bipartisan support.

Republican lawmakers rejected many of Democrat members’ gun safety proposals, including prohibiting owning assault-style weapons, after testimony from parents, Mayor Jacob Frey, and doctors who treated children on Aug. 27.  

The senate hearing was eye-opening and “ridiculous” to Tim Havel, an Annunciation parent who also testified on Sept. 15.

Havel said he was specifically taken aback by Republican senators’ reaction to the day-long testimony.

“I am naive to the political process,” Havel said at Meraki. “I’m sad to say those individuals are heartless, to be able to look past people dying.”

Republican Sen. Keri Heintzman (SD6) told reporters after the working group concluded with a curt “no” that despite being emotionally impacted by the testimony, she was not moved to sign an assault-weapons ban.

“I have a 223, I can put in a 30-round magazine,” Republican Sen. Jeff Howe (SD13) said to reporters. “People say, ‘why do you need that?’ Well, you know the thing is, I like plinking and I like shooting it. It’s fun, believe it or not.”

Mayor Jacob Frey has also been a vocal proponent of banning assault-style weapons since Aug. 27. He repeated the need for Minneapolis to take its own action as students returned to school.

“Banning assault rifles shouldn’t be a political issue,” Frey said in a statement to North News. “Whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, or Independent. It shouldn’t matter. Kids are dying, families are being shattered, and our communities are demanding action.”

Long, speaking at Meraki, said the first bill he ever worked on as a congressional aide was for an assault weapons ban in 2005 after the nation-wide ban expired in 2004.

“We’ve always had the public on our side,” Long said. “People want gun violence prevention.”

The Minnesota Legislature passed two gun safety laws in 2023, when Democrats held a super majority. One, requiring universal background checks for anyone buying a gun, and two, a new “reg flag law” that allows certain people to request an extreme risk protection order to keep a particular person from buying or possessing a firearm.

Republican lawmakers on Sept. 15 said they were not supportive of funding an awareness campaign for Minnesota’s new red flag law.  

“We don’t have the votes right now,” Long said. “It’s going to be a long fight.”

According to Democratic lawmakers and gun violence prevention advocates, Republican representatives and senators will need to be swayed by their constituents to vote for gun violence prevention laws. Minnesota Rep. Andrew Myers (45A), Rep Danny Nadeau (34A), Sen. Judy Seeberger (SD 41), Sen. Grant Haushchild (SD 3), and Sen. Rob Kupec (SD4) have been identified by local gun violence prevention organizations as Republican politicians that could be swayed to vote for gun safety laws, such as safe gun storage and firearm safety training.

“We know the public’s with us,” Long said. “If we do better organizing, we know we are going to win this.”

Whiting spoke about losing his father to gun violence when he was in 2nd grade and finally seeing crime scene photographs from his dad’s case when he was in law school.

“The one thing that never leaves us is hope,” Whiting said, as he added on to the stories of people who lost loved ones to gun violence.

Sen. Samantha Sencer-Mura recounted the “brutal summer” she and her colleagues went through after Rep. Melissa Hortman, her husband, and dog were killed by a gunman. She expressed frustration that her Republican colleagues were not moved to action.

“There is a lot of listening that I am trying to do with some of my Republican colleagues to understand why this feels so hard,” Sencer-Mura said. “I don’t come from a culture of guns.”

Sencer-Mura said that recent political organizing and public pressure has moved Gov. Tim Walz on gun legislation in “a way that has been surprising.”

“That gives me a lot of hope for what is possible,” Sencer-Mura said.

Future action

Gun violence prevention activists are hoping that Gov. Tim Walz will call a special session this fall to bring all Minnesota legislators back to take a vote on an assault weapons ban.

“We need you to keep showing up,” DeWeerth of Everytown for Gun Safety said. “Because what you are going to hear, no offense to the lawmakers in the room, is they are going to tell this is not the right time.”

The regular Minnesota legislative session otherwise begins in February where, Long told the group gathered at Meraki, Democrats will “force a vote” on gun violence prevention. Long reminded the gathering they don’t have a “single Republican vote” but the vast majority of their constituents support gun violence prevention.

Moms Demand Action is holding a virtual state-wide meeting on Oct. 8 at 8 p.m. for people to learn more about gun violence prevention work. There will also be a local meet-up at Washburn Library on Oct. 25 to learn about phone banking as an organizing skill.