Sunday ABC’s “This Week,” House Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN) said the “red flag law” in his state should have prevented the suspect in the mass shooting at a Minnesota church from being able to possess a firearm.
Emmer said, “Our hearts are broken and our prayers are with the families, the two families that lost their children. As you know, there were 20 that were injured, 18 of them are still being treated, 15 children and three adults. And according to the folks in Minneapolis, all are expected to survive.”
He continued, “This young man was seriously mentally disabled, deranged. Somebody had to know. We understand that the FBI has talked to his mother. But we’ll wait for the investigation, for the FBI and local authorities to actually release information when it’s fully formed. But somebody had to know.”
He added, “The mental health crisis in this country is one of the main problems that we are faced with today. Exacerbated by the pandemic, exacerbated by the internet and all the rest. And we’ve got to figure out how to deal with it. But people do have options. The key is that when you identify someone, maybe it’s in your family, maybe it’s a friend, maybe it’s in your neighborhood, your — your support group, whatever your network is, you can report that to the appropriate authorities, your concern. It’s not trying to tattle on someone, it’s literally trying to help them.”
Emmer concluded, “This person may need some help. And we — we’ve got another thing in this state, Martha, which I don’t understand — and we’re going to find out more because this young man never should have had access or been able to possess a firearm based on what little we already know. And somebody who had to know that, there’s a red flag law in this state. And what that’s all about is, it’s usually used by a parent or a law enforcement officer to go to the court and get an order that this individual, because of their emotional state, the mental challenges that they have, the mental illness, cannot, should not possess a firearm because they’d be a danger to themselves and/or others.”
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