Dear [Your Elected Official],

As Catholic and your constituent, I urge you to support a three-tiered approach to help protect our children in Minnesota:

1) Expand safe schools funding for ALL students

We must expand school security funding in schools to at least $36 per enrolled student in state aid to students in private, charter, and tribal schools, and increase the school board approve levy authority for long-term security resources in public schools. All students deserve to be safe at school, regardless of the school they attend!

2) Support a ban on “high-capacity” ammunition magazines

Feeding devices that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition allow a shooter to continuously fire bullets without reloading.Statistics from Everytown for Gun Safety show that in mass shootings where four or more people were killed (2015-2022), incidents with high-capacity magazines led to: more than twice as many people killed, nearly ten times more people wounded per incident (on average), and nearly five times more people shot per incident (on average). According to one study published in the Journal of Criminology and Public Policy, “bans of large-capacity magazines (LCMs) were associated with significant reductions in the incidence of fatal mass shootings,” and, along with background checks, “laws banning LCMs are the most effective gun policies for reducing fatal mass shootings.”

3) Protect children from the harms of social media and AI chatbots

We must protect children online. I urge you to support legislation that puts the well-being of children ahead of the interest of big tech. We should be taking steps towards better identifying threats online. We can also consider legislation to prohibit minors from being able to access AI chatbots for recreational use. Taking steps like these could have a positive impact on the youth mental health crisis and mitigate harm.  

Thank you for your consideration.