Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar cited today’s school shooting— committed by a Minnesota resident — and used it to demand federal gun control, even though the facts contradict her warning about outsiders bringing guns into the state.
A shooter opened fire during morning Mass at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis on Wednesday while kindergarten through eighth-grade students attended, officials and news reports said. During an appearance on ” The Weeknight,” Omar used the tragedy to argue that Minnesota’s strict gun laws mean little without federal action, warning that residents from neighboring states could bring firearms across state lines and endanger her constituents.
“In Minnesota, we have strong gun laws, but Indiana is not that far away from us. And so we have to recognize as, you know, people who live in the United States, you know, a community like Minneapolis or just the state of Minnesota taking action does not prevent our neighbor from coming and harming one of our community members,” Omar said.
Omar pressed for sweeping federal legislation, insisting that fragmented state-level rules cannot stop gun violence in a country where borders between states remain open.
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“So we have to collectively think of ourselves as people who collectively reside in this country, who are impacted by the decisions that are, the lack of decisions or decisions that are made in different states because we are in one country. And so there has to be federal laws that are introduced that safeguard life in this country,” Omar added.
Omar said the United States stands alone in refusing to act on gun violence, adding that other nations quickly imposed restrictions after their first school shootings while Americans, she said, make excuses. (RELATED: Gunman Left 5 Firearms, 500+ Shell Casings In CDC Headquarters Shooting, Police Say)
“We have this problem uniquely as a country because the rest of the world, once they saw there might be a problem, once they got their first taste of that heartbreak of losing their children in a senseless way, they said no more, not again. And so in our country in order to continuously make excuses on why we are not going to take a collective action on a federal level that collectively addresses this problem is beyond me,” Omar said. “And I want the mothers in this country to rise up and to recognize that for the love of the Second Amendment, for the love of our gun culture, we have to have a greater love for our kids.”
Omar claimed that other countries acted immediately after their first school shootings, but a Reuters review shows deadly school attacks are now spreading in Europe, proving the problem is not uniquely American. Data from the University of Washington in 2023 further shows the U.S. gun homicide rate is 33 times higher than Australia’s and 77 times higher than Germany’s, contradicting her statement that other nations solved the issue by simply saying “no more.”
The Daily Caller News Foundation found that numerous websites explain how semi-automatic firearms operate and can be located through a simple internet search. The National Rifle Association said in an article that federal law makes it illegal to possess a fully automatic firearm unless it is registered under the National Firearms Act.
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