Gabrielle Giffords, Governor Walz talk gun violence at Capitol

Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords spoke about gun violence prevention with Governor Tim Walz on Thursday afternoon.

The two were joined by Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan and Attorney General Keith Ellison at the Capitol at 1 p.m.

Giffords was shot in the head at a public constituent event in 2011, where a gunman killed six people and injured 12. Giffords stepped down from Congress in 2012 to run her organization called Giffords, which aims to end gun violence.

According to a gun law scorecard from Giffords organization, Minnesota earned a C+ for gun safety in 2022. The state is ranked 43rd in gun death rates.

In recent years, Minnesota has enacted gun safety measures, but some believe the state is missing key lifesaving policies. Some of these policies could include background checks and extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs).

Walz promised to see some of those reforms pass in Minnesota, something state Republicans have generally opposed.

Senate Minority Leader Mark Johnson (R-East Grand Forks) issued the following statement Thursday afternoon:

“Rather than pushing a divisive political agenda, we are working to find solutions that everyone supports and will actually save lives, especially those of children. We introduced a bill that includes $100 million to schools for safety improvements, but Democrats never gave it a hearing and it’s not been included in their education omnibus bills. Rather than an extreme all-or-nothing approach on guns, we can and should come together to protect lives with ideas that everyone supports, and that we know will work. This isn’t the time to score political points and win elections, it’s time to do something that will actually save lives.”