Annunciation parents, community members rally to demand special session, assault-type gun ban

Annunciation parents, community members rally to demand special session, assault-type gun banAnnunciation parents, community members rally to demand special session, assault-type gun ban

A few dozen gathered for a rally on the steps of the Minnesota Capitol on Saturday to demand state lawmakers convene a special session to address gun reform.

Moms Demand Action, Students Demand Action, faith leaders, and parents and other members of the Annunciation Catholic School community led the “Don’t Look Away” rally. The event was held exactly one month after a shooter opened fire at Annunciation Church and School.

Speaking to those gathered, Annunciation Catholic School parent Tess Rada read the names of 30 children killed in school shootings across the U.S. since 2021.

“They’re not politicians’ points, they’re not numbers, they’re not statistics, they’re kids,” Rada said, during an interview with 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS.

Rada stood above a red, white, and blue crowd. Volunteers from Moms Demand Action were in red, alongside several others in blue Annunciation t-shirts.

In the middle of the crowd, a boy’s sign read, “My friend is dead.” Next to him, a girl held the words, “Keep me safe.”

Rada’s daughter is a third grader and watched her schoolmates being laid to rest in recent weeks.

“She effectively had her innocence and, you know, feeling of safety in the world taken away,” Rada said.

Parent and St. Paul teacher Anna Lund said the possibility of a school shooting is always at the back of her mind. She was among the rally-goers on Saturday.

“We had our first lockdown drill this week, and we were just practicing, but I have young students in my class, and I was holding back tears because I know how big a deal it is. And I don’t want to show that to my students,” Lund said.

Next to her was fellow parent and Moms Demand Action volunteer Sara Gengler.

“There’s one of her and how many kids?” Gengler said.

“And we hear stories of students protecting each other. And that’s just not their job, it’s our job. It’s our legislators’ jobs.”

The crowd called on state lawmakers to ban assault-type weapons and high-capacity magazines.

Among them was St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter. Carter, earlier this month, stood with several mayors calling for the same statewide bans.

At the time, I asked city leaders to be more specific.

Renée Cooper (Sept. 2): “Assault weapon is a fairly arbitrary term that would need to be defined. Are you talking about banning certain models? Certain assaultive features? Speak to how you’re defining assault weapon.”

Mayor Jacob Frey, Minneapolis (Sept. 2): “Generally speaking, we’re talking about guns and devices that are built to be assault weapons, and/or devices that are built to shift non-assault weapons to be able to reel off a whole bunch of bullets all at once… We’re trying to prevent both of those things from happening.”

The mayors leading the call were from cities almost exclusively represented by DFL lawmakers.

Republicans have said a special session should focus on mental health.

In a recent KSTP/SurveyUSA poll, a plurality of respondents, 40% identified “Mental health” as the single biggest issue in addressing gun violence.

The survey also showed that a majority, 53% of Minnesotans, want a ban on assault-style guns.

“There’s no reason someone should be able to shoot 116 rounds in 2 minutes,” Rada said.

“This has become my whole life and will stay that way until something changes.”
The post Annunciation parents, community members rally to demand special session, assault-type gun ban first appeared on KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News.