Well, you don't need to live in Perry for today's shooting to once again
hit home the fears and feelings of dread that
follow these things stretch beyond cities beyond borders.
But here's the thing,
the responses to these types of shootings can look really different
depending on which of a side of a border you live,
meaning which state you're in.
Kent is here to talk about that. Hi, Kent.
Yeah, Jan,
on days like this debates over gun
control and safety immediately erupt nationally.
But legislate action is largely happening on the state level.
We've seen that up close in Minnesota this past year,
but things look different in Iowa.
So today I connected with a mother in Minnesota and two students in Iowa
to find out how, where they live is shaping their response
day after day.
You know,
we risk our lives coming to school and
I think that's really devastating and heartbreaking.
I've always said like I just am waiting for the day till it happens to me,
Hannah Hayes and Akshara Ishwar
say it didn't take long to learn about what happened in Perry this morning.
Just a half an hour from their des Moines area schools been very upset and very sad.
Um, my friend just told me that he had a family member that was,
um,
shot in this shooting. Um,
and so
I've been a little bit
sick to my stomach. I haven't been able to think about anything else.
And for these two, the topic was already top of mind as leaders of March for our lives,
Iowa, they just helped lead an event at the State Capitol on Tuesday,
laying out their priorities for gun safety
legislation ahead of the upcoming session.
Those include like mandatory reporting for lost or stolen firearms,
closing the domestic violence and stalking hate crimes
loophole as well as extreme risk protection orders.
And so all of those we set forth just um on Tuesday,
I think it was and then today we have this shooting,
I'm proud of them for activating and for using their voices.
And I'm really sorry that they have to do it in
this way so that they can simply be safe at school.
Susie Kaufman is the leader of moms demand action.
Minnesota, which spent years advocating for similar legislation,
including an extreme risk protection order or red flag law that
passed here last session and just went into effect this week.
If people don't know about it, then the law is not useful.
So we really want people to know that this law is out there
and we're going to be spending the next few months working to,
to inform people and let them know how they can use it to keep themselves safer.
Do you believe this law will
potentially
avert tragedies like we're seeing?
I absolutely think that the extremist protection law will help keep people safer.
It will keep guns out of the hands of people who are a risk to themselves or to others.
It's important to note that maybe every law is not going to save every life.
But if a law can save one life, then that to me is worth it.
But for now,
the thought of passing similar laws in Iowa appears to face much longer odds.
Last year, we passed strict scrutiny,
which would mean that any gun legislation we propose would have
to go through the courts with the highest judicial review,
um which makes it a lot more difficult to pass gun legislation issues
with gun violence are sort of swept under the rug because in Iowa,
at least because we don't
see as often how it might affect us and we and everything just seems so far away for us.
And despite the political realities in Iowa,
Hannah and Akshara both said they remain hopeful and motivated.
They cited a move by Governor Kim Reynolds in recent
years that dedicated more state money to school safety.
And in the wake of the shooting today,
they hope that legislators will look closely at what might be done
to help safeguard them and their classmates from gun violence, Janet.
Yeah.
Can I, I know people perhaps at home are thinking, well, wait, this shooter was 17.
So all of the laws they're talking about don't really apply here.
But I think what's clear
is that in the minutes and hours after these shootings,
people grasp on to something.
Right.
They want to talk about something and there was a gun involved in this shooting.
We didn't,
you know what I'm saying?
Like,
we need to talk about something here rather than the hopelessness and the despair.
That's absolutely right. I mean, we've, we've seen it time and time again. Right.
We, we hear these messages coming and there's,
there's a couple of different ways to think about it
and all of the women that I spoke to today
said that they wanna do something they wanna move forward.
Um, and we'll see, of course, as this investigation is involving,
evolving what happens and what might be done
if anything to prevent something very similar.
Yeah,
so true. Thank you so much, Kent. We appreciate.