Texas Shooting Spurs Supporters Of Minnesota Gun Law Changes

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Friday's deadly school shooting in Texas has led to yet another conversation about school safety and gun laws in Minnesota.

Local students who attended the March For Our Lives in Washington after the Parkland massacre showed up to the State Capitol Friday to demand change. One of the was Henry Sibley High School senior Devin Bauert.

"Nothing is changing, and it's heartbreaking to know that nothing is changing," Bauert said.

Rob Doar, from the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus, also wants to see change.

"I'm a father of two kids," Doar said. "I just want to make sure that every conceivable thing that we can do to keep them safe while they're at school is being done."

To him, that does not include universal background checks.

"When you look at the most recent mass shootings, almost every single person has passed a background check," Doar said.

The state's school safety bill does no address them, either. Instead, it would give districts resources to "harden" campuses or provide more counseling.

Doar stresses that with a legally-purchased gun, and explosives used in today's Texas shooting, the focus on firearms misses the larger threat.

But the threat itself, Bauert says, is enough to warrant a conversation.

"It kills me to know that those students died today because their school and the government is not doing enough for us," Bauert said. "And I don't want to ever have to be standing here again because my peers across the country died senselessly."

We will have to see if the how the tone will change at the Capitol, if at all, as we head into election season.

Bauert and many of her peers will soon cast their first vote.