Citizens will be at the State Capitol this afternoon on the second-to-the-last day of the legislative session, demanding lawmakers require background checks on all gun sales in Minnesota. Republican leaders say there’s no way they can get agreement on that but they will approve funding to beef up school security and provide more mental health counseling. House Speaker Kurt Daudt says, “If nothing else happens this session, I want to make sure that the school safety legislation gets signed into law. Now, don’t read into what I just said to think that I believe nothing else is going to [happen], but that’s my way of saying this is our number-one priority.”
For students at the Capitol Friday, that was not enough. Henry Sibley student Devin Bauert choked back tears as she said, “It kills me to know that those students died… because their school and the government is not doing enough for us.” Fellow student Joseph Weikert added, “We are only 20 weeks in 2018, yet we’ve had 22 school shootings… more than one school shooting every week.”