Gov. Tim Walz, the Minnesota House and the Senate resume negotiating a potential special session on gun violence as pressure mounts.

Walz and DFL leadership sent a proposal and a date for the special session on gun violence last week.​

The proposal had nine items, from banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to increasing funding for school safety and mental health. According to the proposal, the session would have started on Oct. 6 and ended on Oct. 12.

The Republican leadership decided not to sign, pushing back the special session for further negotiations.​ At a press conference, Rep. Lisa Demuth (R-Cold Spring) said the parameters of the proposal would have excluded the legislative process.

Sen. Harry Niska (R-St. Paul) said the proposal and the special session are a part of a political stunt.

“Now it’s clear the Governor isn’t interested in that, he’s really just interested in trying to politicize a really horrible tragedy,” Niska said.

Walz announced the plan for a special session after the Annunciation Catholic School shooting in August, according to The Minnesota Daily. Walz is the only one who can call a special session.

Sen. Erin Murphy (DFL-St. Paul) said she felt frustrated by the lack of progress on a special session. Murphy argued the DFL did provide sufficient parameters for the legislative process. 

“I disagree with the Republicans because we offered in the document that we shared with them the means for the legislative process to happen,” Murphy said. 

Minnesota’s gun control laws include background checks, concealed carry and red flag laws. A ban on assault weapons could be difficult to pass, due to a split House after a special election in September. 

Before a possible special session, Senate leaders set up a gun violence working group on Sept. 15 and 17 to figure out possible solutions to gun violence after the Annunciation school shooting.  

Parents of the Annunciation school shooting, community leaders and local leaders all gave testimony on the aftermath of the shooting and how to solve gun violence in a recording of the working group. Brittany Haeg, the mother of a six-year-old who was injured in the shooting, said there should be a special session on banning assault weapons.  

“Annunciation is one in a long line of school shooting tragedies made more infuriating by the fact that it is preventable,” Haeg said. “Our children continue to die because our laws treat guns as more important than human life.” 

Carla Maldonado, whose two kids were at Annunciation during the shooting, said while her children survived the school shooting, they have not been the same since. Maldonado said a ban on assault weapons could help prevent other parents from experiencing what happened to her.

“My children were one of the lucky ones. We got to hug them after school. But they are not the same after the shooting,” Mandalo said. “I implore you to ban assault weapons. Our children deserve better than this. Do not wait for another kid to die, do not let another mother come to you and tell her story of grief and sadness.” 

Local leaders like Mayor Jacob Frey, who attended the working group, said the state could consider giving Minnesota mayors the power to ban assault weapons on a city level.

“We’ve made it very clear that if the state and or federal government is not willing or able to get this done, then give mayors and councils at the local level the authority to regulate guns. We’re the ones that take the calls at 1:30 in the morning that yet another kid has been gunned down,” Frey said in an interview with the Daily. 

In a Sept. 17 press conference, Senate Republicans like Sen. Jeff Howe (R-Rockville) argued that the potential special session should focus on school safety and mental health issues.

“I truly believe we need to do things now. The issue is, how do we get there? How do we do it? I think that will be tied up in court and won’t take effect for years,” Howe said. “We can put ink on paper, but ink on paper can’t protect our kids.”

Sen. Ron Latz (DFL-St. Louis Park) said that only increasing school safety and mental health does not address the assault rifle issue.

“We can interrupt that violence and damage,” Latz said. “You can not separate the guns from this equation, you just can not.” 

Leah Kondes, the executive director of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group advocating for a ban on assault weapons, said the progress on the special session is not surprising.

“We’ve had a lot of new folks join our movement since that Annunciation shooting,” Kondes said. “What I’ve tried to tell people who are new to this movement is that the work is long, slow and hard.” 

Walz said he would consider possibly bringing the issue to a constitutional amendment to ban assault weapons, reported Minnpost. 

Christian Purnell, a litigation fellow at the gun violence prevention clinic at the University of Minnesota, said there is active debate in the courts on whether the Second Amendment should protect assault rifles.

“Since the founding, the Second Amendment and firearm regulation have gone hand in hand,” Purnell said in a statement. “While recent Supreme Court decisions have significantly expanded the scope of Second Amendment protections, they have not foreclosed many avenues for regulation, including those proposed by Governor Walz this Fall.”

Even though the session is back at negotiations, Demuth and Murphy said they were not discouraged about convening a special session. 

“We have to think about what it is that we’re here to do and who we’re here to serve,” Murphy said. “I often have found that that changes hearts and minds.”