Minneapolis shooting: Doctors on gun violence

Okay, so you were at this press conference today, you know, we heard a little bit of it there, but just tell me what, what they were speaking out about, what prompted them to have this event following that Wednesday shooting? Yeah, I think the main thing that they're looking at is the red flag laws and strengthening those. And so, you know, those laws passed in 2023 took effect January 1st, 2024. They essentially allow a narrow number of people to try to intervene when somebody is threatening violence. It's really just family members, intimate partners, and then law enforcement, if you include prosecutors. And those are the only people who can actually intervene. This guy, Carlton Johnson, we know he has a history of threatening people, threatening to shoot people dating back at least to 2018. There was a confirmed incident back then. There was a confirmed incident in 2023 with him threatening to shoot people. And then there were the two accusations just earlier this summer that weren't acted on at this point. Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office did look at one of these incidents in June specifically where it reached the level of Minneapolis police. They referred it to the HCAO and they couldn't file charges in that case even because Johnson had not pulled his gun out of his waistband. And so that also meant that they did not see sufficient evidence to file for an extreme risk protective order, an ERPO, which is what the red flag law allows. But this guy does have a really, you know, significant history of threatening gunfire. And so you wonder what red flag laws could do to, you know, address a guy with that kind of history, again, threatening people with weapons. And that's kind of what they're looking at is expanding the red flag laws, strengthening it and maybe allowing people who are threatened by gunfire to apply for one of these or, you know, with repeated incidents, allowing a red flag ERPO to come out. Okay. So we do have red flag laws here in Minnesota, but these individuals speaking at this press conference, they would like to see that law expanded, make it a little, make it a tougher law. What about the fact that he had, he was a legal gun owner. He owned this gun legally. Was that addressed today at the press conference? No, but that's what red flag laws apply to people who are legal gun owners, because you can only really take away, I mean, you can take away an illegal gun from anybody at any point if you know that they have one. But a legal gun owner can lose his rights or her rights in the case of extreme risk, which includes threatening, you know, a family member with that gun. And so that's what they're addressing here. I also want to point out that like, I didn't expect this going in, but a lot of this to me at that press conference was hearing from a couple of the doctors who actually are treating people in these scenarios. One of them, Dr. Tim Coomer, he was the first doctor on the scene at Annunciation Church a year ago. And then again, he's treating the victims of this mass shooting on Wednesday, had to leave his back to school night for his family and go and start treating gunshot victims again. He testified in front of the Senate and the legislature during the year trying to get an assault weapons ban. He brought evidence on how assault weapons have, you know, more victims, different kind of injuries to people. He brought the evidence there. I asked him for evidence on just guns in general. He said he doesn't have that evidence, but he does have his personal experiences that he, you know, wants these things to end. He's got his personal trauma. I asked him, are you OK, man? And he said, no, no, none of them are OK. Yeah. I know that Hennepin Healthcare has invested quite a bit of private donor funds to support these emergency room employees specifically because of what they're going through and the gun violence that they're seeing almost daily now. I am curious if you asked them if they were getting any support from the system, the healthcare workers themselves. Yeah, I didn't get into that with them, but I, you know, they do have that. In fact, one of the doctors who was there is on the site team and he is one of the people who tries to help these folks through these types of events when they have occurred. And we've had, I believe, 91 people have been shot in Minneapolis in the last four or five months here. So they're treating many, if not all of them. Wow. So what happens next, Corin? I mean, do you expect, did they say that they were planning on presenting a bill to strengthen these red flag laws this next session or what do you see coming next? Yeah. So, I mean, there actually was a bill, but it was kind of this omnibus bill, which means a lot of things in it. And it would have, it was a gun safety bill, it passed in the Senate. And one of the things it would have done is strengthen the red flag laws, but it also had the ban on assault weapons, the ban on high capacity magazines. And you know, I don't know how the red flag law expansion strengthening would fare on its own as a standalone bill. But because it was part of this omnibus bill, the whole thing went down in flames in the house on party lines. And so, you know, there was a DFL Senator there, Scott Dibble. He represents the district where this event took place. And he said he would be advocating for another red flag law bill that would expand it, strengthen it and maybe potentially add people who've been threatened. Yeah, it always gets messy when they clump a bunch of different laws together and try and pass one big package. So all right, Corin, really appreciate you taking the time to join us today and break down what went down today with that press conference. Thank you. You got it.