John -

I am heartbroken. Another tragic, preventable shooting - this time taking the lives of 18 children and 3 teachers at a Texas elementary school. My heart aches for the families who dropped their children off Tuesday morning, never expecting that they would not be able to pick them back up.

We must do more to protect our children. They should not be in danger from guns. Not in schools, not in their homes, and not on playgrounds or sidewalks.

And now is exactly the time to talk about this. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to prevent these awful tragedies. Here are 5 things we could do right now:

• Lawmakers must pass red flag laws and universal background checks. We've passed them through the MN House, and they should be law.
• Locally, the County Attorney's Office must bring accountability to people who sell guns illegally, store guns irresponsibly and whose negligent gun ownership results in death.
• We can stop and roll back proposals that lower the minimum age to own a gun. If people aren't mature enough to have a drink until they're 21, the same should go for gun ownership.
• We need better education on how gun culture heightens violence and hostility in our country. Guns can and should be owned responsibly, but that's not what we have right now.
• We must address the gaps in the system between mental health care, law enforcement and our criminal justice system. If someone is mentally unfit to stand trial, there needs to be follow up care and supervision to ensure they can make it to trial at a later date. The House passed a bill at the end of the session to deal with any competency gaps, which was just signed into law.

I am sending my condolences to the families in Texas and to the many, many American families that have frequently had to endure the unimaginable pain of gun related deaths of loved ones.

Sincerely,

Ryan

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