All Lakeville High School student Harper Jensen really wants are Taylor Swift tickets. But snagging those tickets can be a challenge: waiting in long Ticketmaster queues, praying the site doesn’t crash mid-purchase, hoping verified fan codes actually work before they sell out.
Meanwhile, someone with an affinity for mass shootings can legally purchase a deadly arsenal. At Annunciation Catholic Church, where 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moyski were killed and 18 others injured August 27, law enforcement found an AR-15, a semi-automatic pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun, and four empty rifle magazines.
On Labor Day, Jensen joined more than 100 other students rallying at the Minnesota State Capitol demanding a ban on semiautomatic guns and high-capacity magazines. Their voices echoed with clarity and urgency.
“We are unhappy with the status quo,” said Samia Mojamud, a senior at Kennedy High School and member of Students Demand Action. “We are unhappy that kids are dying in schools because they admire their Second Amendment more than they do children’s lives.”
The broader statistics make the stakes painfully clear. In 2023, nearly 47,000 people died from gun-related injuries in the U.S., the third-highest annual total on record according to the Pew Research Center. Though some progress has been made and gun death rates edged down slightly in recent years, the magnitude remains staggering. That same year, the Gun Violence Archive recorded 656 mass shootings, second only to the record-high 689 in 2021.
For Jensen, the response from national leadership has been baffling. The White House offered prayers, then suggested a link between antidepressants and mass shootings. “It frustrates me that our federal government is willing to blame it on anything except guns, whether that’s mental health or [shooter Robin Westman] being queer,” she said. “Just focus on the problem itself.”
Annunciation Church’s chaplain, Howard Dotson, has walked this grief before. He counseled families after the 2006 Venice High School shooting in Los Angeles and again after the 2013 Sparks Middle School tragedy in Nevada. Now he is again facing the sorrow of a community that refuses to be silenced.
“No more assault rifles. No more bump stocks. No more ghost guns. No more false either-ors. It’s both gun safety and mental health,” he declared. “We need a bipartisan resolution, because those guns don’t know red or blue.”
Marcia Howard, president of the MFT 59 teachers’ union and an English teacher at Roosevelt High School, spoke with equal clarity. She grew up duck hunting in the Arkansas Delta; hunters came from across the country to shoot ducks in Stuttgart. “The only thing I didn’t have was an AR-15,” she said.
“You would not be caught with a high-capacity rifle out in the swamp. This is about the guns.” She turned toward the Capitol dome. “This house right here needs to handle this stuff.”
Howard carries deeper insight as a former Marine Corps non-commissioned officer. “It’s about the switches,” she said. “It’s about the ability to take out more people on a regular city street than I was able to in a theater of war.”
The violence in Minnesota has played out in neighborhoods and places young people trust. Just two days before the Annunciation shooting, one person was killed and six others wounded near East Lake Street and I-35W. Less than 12 hours later, another man was killed and another injured on the 800 block of Hennepin Avenue.
“The conversation needs to be had on a local level in the state of Minnesota,” said Lisa Clemons, CEO of the Minneapolis nonprofit A Mother’s Love. “Our kids should be able to ride in a car coming from McDonald’s and not catch a bullet in the head.”
The policy backdrop underscores the complexity. The U.S. once had a federal ban on assault-style rifles, lasting a decade before expiring in 2004. Everytown Research & Policy estimates that, had it remained in effect from 2005 to 2019, the ban would have prevented 30 mass shootings, saving 339 lives and reducing injuries by 1,139 people. Additionally, weapons used in mass shootings often involve high-capacity magazines; bans on these could potentially reduce injuries by nearly 25%.
Minnesota Democrats did not act even in 2023 when they controlled the governor’s office and both legislative chambers. Following the Annunciation tragedy Governor Tim Walz has called for a special session to pass gun control measures, even as the now-Republican-controlled House likely poses serious obstacles.
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