Edina and Bloomington community members discussed gun violence prevention with elected officials in a town hall Tuesday. The event emerged from community demands to address the issue following the Annunciation Catholic Church shooting on Aug. 27.
The Edina Community Lutheran Church hosted the Community Conversation, featuring Edina Mayor James Hovland, Sen. Alice Mann, Reps. Julie Greene and Cheryl Youakim, Bloomington elected officials, and other panelists.
“It’s time to stop the conversation [and] start some motion,” Youakim said during the event. “While I’m a very faithful person, and I have been praying a lot, I want to take the Annunciation principal’s stance of wanting to pray with our feet.”
Panelists, ranging from pediatricians to the gun reform organization directors, were introduced first, followed by comments from Edina students working on a safe storage bill with Greene. After, panelists were invited to answer questions asked by form before the event or given to facilitators during.
Liz Van Heel, an Edina resident with two students at Cornelia Elementary, said she was prompted to attend after the Annunciation shooting.
“Gun violence has been a concern of mine for some time, especially since having young kids,” she said. “I’m a therapist, and a lot of my clients were traumatized by it, and my kids ended up hearing about it and are scared and upset. I hear most people around me saying they want something done about this.”
Van Heel and ACLU board member and Edina Planning Commission member Bonnie Padilla said they wanted an assault weapon ban passed at the state level.
Bloomington residents Jean and Jim Batala also decided to come due to the Annunciation shooting. Jean Batala is a former teacher who conducted lockdown drills and discussed school shootings with students.
“Gun violence is everywhere,” Jean Batala said. “It’s in movie theaters, it’s in shopping centers. There’s not a whole bunch of safe places to go, and we shouldn’t be feeling that way.”
The Batalas said they noticed most attendees “were seeing things the same” and assumed it was because of the Democratic representation in the area.
“There are a couple people that, maybe, were opposed to gun laws, and I guess I would have liked their side of the story,” Jim Batala said.
Kim Rich, a Republican candidate for the Minnesota House of Representatives in 2024, said he attended to learn where change is going.
“If you really want to make a change to the amount of weapons there are, you’d have to repeal the Second Amendment, and this group isn’t going to do that,” Rich said.
Mann said during the event that the issue of gun violence is partisan, and people must be “very wide-eyed about that.” She explained that Congress Republicans are holding up the largest bill increasing mental health payments in Minnesota.
Mann recommended that those advocating for gun reform call representatives, flip seats, and work across the entire state.
“The number one killer of children in America is guns,” Mann said. “And now, it’s happening in our backyard. It’s devastating and preventable, so we really need to stand up and push hard for solutions.”
