Annunciation victim's family asks for study of mass shooters. Researcher says funding has been cut

[THEME MUSIC] NINA MOINI: For our top story today, we're turning to the plea the parents of Lydia Kaiser made to Vice President JD Vance during his visit to Minneapolis. Lydia was injured while protecting a younger student during the mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and school last week. She's still hospitalized at Children's Minnesota. Her mother, Leah Kaiser, and father, Harry Kaiser, who is also a gym teacher at Annunciation, spoke to members of the media at the hospital after meeting Vance yesterday. Let's listen.

LEAH KAISER: I've given a lot of thought about speaking publicly, and I've decided I have something to say. First, I want to say to Jackie and Mike and Jesse and Molly, my heart hurts for you and for your pain of losing your beautiful children, Harper and Fletcher. Harry and I and so many others are with you in your grief.

I want to thank Father Xarin, Principal DeBoer, and the teachers for protecting our little ones and the amazing first responders and hospital staff for bringing us all to safety and treating our injuries. All of us, moms, teachers, you reporters, and vice presidents, we all have an obligation to use this moment. As Principal DeBoer said when he quoted an African proverb, "when you pray, move your feet." Vice President Vance, you have authority. Please use this moment to move your feet and transcend our political divides to promote peace and unity and hope. This is what the people of the United States will hold you accountable to.

This Annunciation community is a force of good in the world, and we invite you to be the same. On the sidewalk in front of the church, in front of the boarded-up windows, someone wrote the Prayer of St. Francis, which says, "make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me bring love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there's despair, hope, where there's darkness, light, and where there is sadness, only joy." That is it. That's everything. That's all I want to say.

HARRY KAISER: I teach all the students at Annunciation, and the vice president asked to come and talk to us today. And before he left, I asked him if he would let me read a note. So I'd like to read that. Mr. Vice President, thank you for coming to see Lydia. I couldn't pass up the opportunity for my kids to meet a vice president. And for the sake of Harper Moyski and Fletcher Merkel and Lydia and Sophia and all my students, I couldn't pass up the opportunity of having your ear for a moment.

We disagree about so many things. We both know both sides and all the talking points we fall back on. But on just this one issue of gun violence, will you please promise me, as a father and a Catholic, that you will earnestly support the study of what is wrong with our culture that we are the country that has the worst mass shooter problem.

We were at mass, singing about being called to act with justice, love, service, and humility. Will you please promise to pursue, despite powerful lobbies, some commonsense, bipartisan legislation as a starting point so we can come out of our corners and find the values that we share so that this time some progress is made? Thoughts and prayers haven't been enough. Many policies have been dismissed without even being studied or tried.

It's so complicated. I don't claim to have the answers, but we have to commit to looking. Then we can feel good about defending life. If one thing changes for the better, perhaps Fletcher's and Harper's deaths and all the injuries and destruction might bring about even more unity, love, and light than I have already seen this past week. One law, one executive order, one policy-- you can call it the Annunciation bill-- then I'll be able to look Lydia and Sophia and all my students in the eye and say, I tried. Sincerely, Harry Kaiser.

I just wanted to make my family proud and my church proud and Fletcher's family and Harper's family proud of what I said and everybody at Annunciation. Thank you.

NINA MOINI: You were hearing there from Leah and Harry Kaiser, the parents of Lydia Kaiser, who was injured in the mass shooting at Annunciation. You heard them there asking Vice President JD Vance to study the causes of mass shootings in the United States and work to find bipartisan solutions. Vice President Vance did not immediately address any policy changes after his visit.

Joining me now to talk more about all the ideas that are out there is Jillian Peterson. She's executive director of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center. That's at Hamline University in St. Paul. Jillian, thanks for your time again today. Really appreciate it.

JILLIAN PETERSON: Absolutely. Thanks for having me.

NINA MOINI: So this plea that Lydia's parents were making, this happened yesterday. The way that Mr. Kaiser worded it, about just studying the causes of mass shootings and giving an earnest effort and seeking bipartisan solutions, when you hear that, what goes through your mind?

JILLIAN PETERSON: Ugh, it's not the first time I've heard it, and it chokes me up every time because it's such a generous ask, right? It's an ask to just please study this, right, actually try to figure it out. And we can't solve things unless we actually truly understand where they come from and what their root causes are. And we are in a moment where research funding has been slashed, specifically around gun violence research at the federal level, trickling down to the state level, just hundreds of millions of dollars in grants. So that ask is very real in this moment. Let's at least try to figure out what's happening.

NINA MOINI: And earlier in the program, my colleague Clay Masters was reporting on some priorities that state Republicans had put out a revolving around having more school resource officers, more mental health beds. We know our US senators, Tina Smith and Amy Klobuchar, are on the floor right now in Congress asking for commonsense legislation. This term common sense, I always wonder if it's so common sense, why hasn't it already been passed? What do you see as really commonsense measures?

JILLIAN PETERSON: I go back to what we about the research and the data. And so I did a big study that was actually funded under the first Trump presidency at the federal level to look at all the mass shootings that have happened. What are the common denominators? What do we know about the people who do this and their pathway to violence?

And from that, a lot of things did emerge that I think a lot of people can agree on. So we know that mass shooters are in a state of crisis. They are suicidal. They're telling people they're going to do this. They are radicalized in online spaces.

And so anything like anonymous tip lines, threat assessment teams, crisis intervention, mental health care, suicide prevention, understanding what social media companies can do in terms of policing their own spaces, all of that's helpful. And then on the other side, these individuals also have access to the place that they want to target and the guns that they need to carry this out. And so anything that's going to slow down access for somebody who is in that state of crisis is going to be helpful, whether that's an extreme risk protection order, safe storage, or limiting access to things like high-capacity magazines and assault weapons.

NINA MOINI: Thank you for that. Another thing we've talked a lot about in recent days are area mayors calling for changes at the state level so that they could implement an assault weapons ban at the city levels, which might be more symbolic. We've talked about maybe a special session at the state level. And then, of course, Vice President Vance visiting from the federal level.

From your perspective, is it helpful to start at a city or a state level? How much of an impact is made there? Or do these types of policy changes really need to come from a federal level?

JILLIAN PETERSON: Ideally, things would happen from a federal level because we have seen mass shooters who drive across state lines to purchase guns. That being said, anything we can do at the state or even the city level could be helpful. We see in a lot of these cases, these are young, usually men living in their parents' basements. They're not incredibly sophisticated. If it is difficult to get their hands on an assault weapon or a high-capacity magazines, that could be enough to slow individuals down.

NINA MOINI: And just lastly, Jillian, what do you think it would take to make the conversation around gun violence, mass shootings less politically polarized in this country?

JILLIAN PETERSON: I think really focusing on the data can help. We have now gathered a lot of information on who these people are. They follow the same trajectory over and over and over again. And we can see from that the stuff we need to put in place based on the data and the research, not based on any political talking points. And I think if we start there, people can come together around some of these issues.

NINA MOINI: All right, Jillian, thank you very much for your time, and we hope you'll join us again sometime soon.

JILLIAN PETERSON: Thank you.

NINA MOINI: That was Jillian Peterson, a professor of criminology and criminal justice and executive director of the Violence Prevention Project Research Center at Hamline University in St. Paul.