Minnesota's laws should have prevented the man accused of fatally shooting two children and injuring more than a dozen others at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis from obtaining a firearm, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer said Sunday.
"This young man was seriously mentally disabled, deranged. Somebody had to know," the Minnesota Republican told ABC News' "This Week." "Clearly, this young man was crying out for help. Why was no one hearing him?"
Emmer pointed out that Minnesota's red flag law lets courts bar individuals deemed dangerous from owning guns.
"What that's all about is, it's usually used by a parent or a law enforcement officer to go to the court and get an order that this individual, because of their emotional state, the mental challenges that they have, the mental illness, cannot, should not, possess a firearm," he said.
According to authorities, investigators discovered notebooks belonging to the trans shooter containing violent grievances written in English, Cyrillic, and other languages.
The writings, Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara said, reflected "a lot of hate towards a wide variety of people and groups of people."
Meanwhile, the trauma will continue for the 20 people injured in the shooting, as well as the community, Emmer said.
"All are expected to survive," he said. "But just because they survive, the trauma that all of these kids, the families that lost their two children, all the kids and the adults that were injured, and every one of them that was at that Mass and, frankly, in the community, is going to be dealing with this for a long time."
Emmer also linked gun violence to gaps in mental health resources, particularly in schools.
However, when Martha Raddatz pressed him on his 2022 vote against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which provided funding for school safety and mental health services following the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Emmer responded that he doesn't "remember the reasons that I didn't vote for that bill."
On Sunday, Emmer also backed the idea of increasing the presence of law enforcement in the state's schools and churches, and criticized Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz for failing to allocate state resources to strengthen security efforts in faith-based schools.
"I think we've got to go back and rethink these things," said Emmer. "What works? What doesn't work? We've got to start improving our game."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.