Rep. Novotny: Possible special session should focus on school security, mental health
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Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says he plans to call a special legislative session to consider tougher gun laws after last week’s shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church and School.
For another perspective, MPR News host Emily Bright spoke with state Rep. Paul Novotny, R-Elk River. He is the co-chair of the House Public Safety Finance and Policy Committee, and has represented parts of Anoka, Sherburne and Wright counties since 2020.
A transcript of their conversation is below, edited for length and clarity. Press play above to listen.
Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth said in a statement that Republicans might consider school security funding and mental health resources in a special session. In your eyes, is a special session necessary?
Is it necessary? I don’t know that, but on a tactical level, are there things that can be done to make Minnesota safer? Yes. Can we wait? We shouldn’t.
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What do you see as your public safety priorities going forward?
Security that’s available to these private schools. They were locked out of the security funding the public schools got. To make sure that we address mental health issues, not only from untreated mental health, but the way that individuals that are experiencing crisis get help, and what that entails. And finally, yes, covering those gaps in school security.
The mayors of Minneapolis, St. Paul and some metro suburbs are asking the state Legislature to pass a statewide assault weapons ban or give cities more power. You released a statement arguing that move would just create more confusion.
Imagine you’re like me, one of the tens of thousands of concealed carry people that go about their day minding their own business, and then when you’re in some of these metro cities, you have no idea where or which side of the street you’re on. You could be in a totally different situation, and then you’ve got to deal with that. Are you going to comply with the ordinance?
What about stricter statewide rules?
Well, the state’s very diverse, and even if you are in the most densely passed cities like Minneapolis or St. Paul, you are still, in the end, responsible for your own safety. I noticed that Mayor Carter and Mayor Frey were both on this on this stage yesterday in the press conference calling for restrictions. Both of those elected officials have armed security details with them all the time, and they want everyone else to be less protected.
Rep. Novotny, you’re a former law enforcement officer. What do you think it will take to reduce violence caused by guns in our state?
Well, I think you need to look at the overall picture of violence. Focusing on the shiny object is, in my view, it’s a diversion of the overarching violence problem that we have, and there’s different causes of this violence. We’ve got drugs and gang problems in many of these areas. And we’ve got, you know, a separate path that we need to deal with.
As I said before on mental health, these things were complicated, and no one wants to talk about the tough issues, like things that can be done on mental health, things that we could do for protection to the gun dealers. And this comes on the hands of some very frustrating conversations that we had about school resource officers just a year and a half ago, when we couldn’t get a special session.
