Good afternoon. My name is Orin Chowry. I'm the council member representing the 12th ward and I'm the lead author of the Safe Firearms Ordinance, a legislative package of common sense gun control policy. And I'm proud to have co-authored this to make our community safer alongside Council Member Len Palmisano, Council Member Jameson Whiting, and Council Member Jason Chavez, who you'll be hearing from today as well. I also want to thank all of my council colleagues who have supported this and joined as co-authors. We will hear from all four of the original authors. We'll hear from Tess Rata, an enunciation parent and a part of Annunciation Light. We'll hear from Leah Condis from Mom's Demand Action, and Maggie Emory, the executive director of Protect Minnesota. Today, the Minneapolis City Council passed the Safe Firearms Ordinance, a comprehensive legislative package of common sense gun control policy unanimously and with the full support of the mayor as a heads to his desk. It is a diff it is very difficult to stand here uh with so much pain in our communities. Our communities have endured immeasurable suffering from gun violence. At Annunciation, at Christo Ray Jesuit High School, our unhoused neighbors and the many lives of so many families changed forever by a single moment. We mourn those who are no longer with us, including young Fletcher Merkel and Harper Moy. two young kids from our enunciation community gone far too soon. Weapons of war do not belong in our neighborhoods. And today, Minneapolis is saying enough. This harm has touched every corner of our city from the north side to the south side. With this action, we say to every impacted community member, "We stand with you in grief, and we will do everything in our power to end gun violence." Gun violence is a public health crisis. It is the leading cause of death among our young people. Our children deserve to grow old. Our parents deserve to become grandparents. Our loved ones deserve to live. As a young person who has only ever known a world where we prepare for school shootings instead of preventing them, I say enough. We demand an end to the era of mass shootings. We refuse to keep wondering when it will be our turn. This legislative package includes a ban on assault weapons, a ban on binary triggers which double the lethality of a firearm, a ban on ghost guns which circumvent background checks and are untraceable at crime scenes. A prohibition on firearms in sensitive places and public spaces including schools, churches, and government buildings. And a requirement for safe storage of firearms. These measures will reduce the harm and frequency of gun violence and prevent them into the future. These provisions will go into effect only when the state legislature acts by repealing or amending existing laws and giving authority to the city of Minneapolis to enact these provisions. This is exactly why we are here today. We thank the Minnesota State Senate for passing sweeping gun control legislation. And we urge the Minnesota House in one united Minneapolis voice to act now. Pass this. This is not a partisan issue. It's a moral one. And Minnesota is watching. I want to thank every single impacted community member, advocate, parent, educator, and first responder. You have had to endure far too much and are asked to do more than anyone should have to do to just get basic policy change. We are passing this legislation here in the city of Minneapolis in your honor. And with that, I would like to introduce Tess Rata, a parent of a student at Annunciation Catholic School and a part of Annunciation Light. Welcome, Tess. My name is Tess Rada. My daughter is a third grader at Annunciation Catholic School. On August 27th, our lives were changed forever when on the third day of school at the first all school mass. A gunman shot 116 rounds of gunfire into the church while the students were praying. We lost 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel and 10-year-old Harper Moy. I represent the Annunciation Light Alliance. We believe in a future where every child can learn, play, and worship free from gun violence. We now work to transform our tragedy into a hope that inspires lasting change. I want to thank the Minneapolis City Council for passing this ordinance. It is a wonderful feeling to know that our city is on our side and that they are not going to sit idly by while children in all parts of Minneapolis die senselessly. The Annunciation Light Alliance is fully aligned with this effort and the urgency with which it has been introduced. Intervention and prevention programs must be the focal point to prevent future harm. Non-fatal shootings are often the beginning of a cycle that repeats if uninterrupted. As our community of enunciation knows, safety is built by preventing violence before it happens. When it happens, it's already too late. This ordinance is a meaningful step toward keeping our kids safe. I also want to acknowledge that while our shooting at Annunciation had a lot of media coverage, gun violence continues to devastate families all across our city. Young lives are taken in this city far, far too often. This ordinance being passed is for Harper, Fletcher, Annayiah, Trinity, and the hundreds of other children whose lives were taken too early by gun violence. It may not save everyone, but it will save some. And making legislation like this to save even one young life is worth it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Tess. >> Sorry about that. Good afternoon. My name is Jameson Whiting. I'm the council member to the 11th ward. This nation was founded on the promises of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Today, the Minneapolis City Council, with the full support of our mayor as the largest city in the state of Minnesota, unanimously affirms those promises. Our children, families, and neighbors deserve a city where they are free from these weapons of war that harm those founding promises. Assault style weapons have no place on our streets, and I am proud of the work of our body that has put this forward today to remove these weapons from our city. As a survivor of gun violence, I intimately know the residual trauma that these weapons inflict on both those physically harmed and their loved ones. The promise of this city and this country is made whole by continuing to limit the over proliferation of these guns. I am proud to be introducing a fierce leader in the fight for gun safety. Leah Condis, the leader of the Minneapolis local group of Moms Demand Action for Gunsense in America, and the mom who hired me for my first babysitting gig when I was a little bit younger. Leah has described guns as an epidemic plaguing our nation, and she could not be more correct. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for youth ages 1 through 19 in the United States. And we know the cure. We need to get guns out of the hands of those who wish to inflict harm on our communities. This work is possible thanks to the dedication of leaders like Leah and we are grateful for her partnership on this ordinance today. This is the first step for Minneapolis and a powerful tool for our state delegation to use to demonstrate the commitment and needs of Minnesota's largest city. We look forward to seeing this progress continue and please join me in giving a warm welcome to Leah. Leah, thank you. >> Welcome up, Leah. >> Today is my youngest daughter's 21st birthday. Why is that relevant? Well, in the past six years, she has been at the mall for one of their shootings, the state fair for one of their shootings, and her campus was recently on lockdown due to a threat of gun violence. This is what it is like to raise a child in America. Ironically, none of those close calls took place in Minneapolis, where she grew up. In a perfect world, there would be a federal approach to this national issue. Failing that, it would be nice if our state legislature would pass laws to keep our kids safe. But if they can't or won't, the very least they can do is give cities the ability to reduce gun violence. St. Paul and Edina uh have already led the way by passing local ordinances. I would like to thank our city council members for bringing forth this ordinance to show our state legislators and Minneapolis residents that they are ready and willing to do something about this issue. >> Hello everyone, Jason Chavez, W 9 city council member. As we took this historic vote today, the thought of the annunciation kids and community was on our mind and the moral clarity from the families who led a historic vote in the state senate. I also thought about the shootings, mass shootings of our unhoused neighbors who have been targeted, the countless neighbors in South and North Minneapolis who have disproportionately been impacted by gun violence. And my mind was also with Chris Ray Jesuit High School on August 26, 2025. There was a mass shooting where an individual fired 29 rounds within 8 seconds from a rifle at a group at people. The perpetrator killed Gregory Sweden and six others were injured. And this is the high school that I proudly graduated from where 98% of the students identify as black or Latino. And I think the vote that we took as a city council sends a clear message to the Minnesota House of Representatives to please not only hear the Minneapolis City Council to please not only hear the state senate to but to please hear the families who are impacted by gun violence and do something. >> Len Palmisano, Minneapolis City Council. As local electeds, we grow close to families who are victims of gun violence. And I need to highlight that the definition of our victims are broad. Of course, it's somebody killed by a gun, but it is also those who are injured by guns and suffer devastating lifelong physical and mental health impacts. It is their family, their friends, their classmates, their neighbors, and their co-workers. It's the first responders who rush to the scene to treat victims and save lives. Some have lost their lives in doing so. Others suffer right along with those killed and wounded because of it. And it is our entire community and city who have their faith in humankind shattered, but who also rise to action as we see here today and have seen this week at our public hearing. Let's not forget all of these victims. We speak with one voice from all corners of our city, a united voice to say we will stand firm and stand tall to disrupt the gun violence culture that is prevalent in America and our city. This ordinance won't prevent gun violence, but it can help reduce the impact of it, and that is important. We will be nimble with this in hand, ready to go. If we don't get the backing from the state to make these changes, we will try again. And if we don't get it next year, we will try again. We will continue until this gets done. We will be carried forward in this work by the memory of victims across our city. And we will do right by them to say not here in Minneapolis. Next up, we have Maggie Emmery, executive director of Protect Minnesota. Maggie and her team work across the state to educate communities about gun violence. Maggie has built coalitions with other gun violence prevention groups to present a unified voice. And she's especially skilled at bringing in folks who aren't traditionally in this conversation, but are really and at times repeatedly impacted by gun violence. So Maggie Emmery Good afternoon. Uh my name is Maggie Emmery and I'm proud to stand here today on behalf of Protect Minnesota and to celebrate the passage of this ordinance and the leadership it represents. For too long, communities across our state have been forced to live with trauma and fear caused by weapons and devices that make shootings more deadly, more chaotic, and harder to prevent. Ghost guns that can't be traced. High-capacity magazines designed to maximize carnage. Assault weapons built for rapid mass harm. These are not abstract policy debates. They're tools of devastation that leave empty seats at dinner tables and grieving families in every corner of the country, state, and city. While we know that Minnesota's state preeemption laws limit what cities can ultimately enforce, today matters deeply because leadership matters. Courage matters and refusing to stay silent in the face of this violent epidemic matters. This ordinance is saying clearly, we will not normalize shootings. We will not accept inaction as the price of living in America. and we will continue pushing for evidence-based solutions that will save lives. To the city leaders, advocates, survivors, and community members who make this happen, showing up over and over and over, thank you. Your voices build a future where families no longer experience the heartbreak of gun violence. And to every motan watching today, this work is not over. But what happened here today, what happened in the Senate on Monday shows us that momentum on this issue is growing and that people across the state are ready for action. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> We can take some questions now. Um so the ordinance kind of included some measures like um restricting where people could discharge their firearms and prohibiting them from owning a weapon if they are not allowed to have firearms. Were those existing uh or like existing language in the ordinance or is that something that passed today? >> That was my understanding is that was existing language that we had. So, we um in our ordinance updated language that existed in our code to further clarify it and have it match the provisions that we added. And the provisions that already existed and are going to be updated will go into effect 30 days after enactment. >> Any other questions? >> How are those going with the state regarding things in order for this stuff to go into effect. >> We have had several conversations um as council members with our Minneapolis delegation and our IGR team in just pushing that this is something that the city of Minneapolis clearly wants. We understand that it is going to be really difficult at the state house um in this upcoming vote and we back our Minneapolis delegation and the authors um Representative Emma Greenman and then Senator Muhammad who passed it in the Senate every step of the way and we're at the ready to support along with several cities that have passed this type of legislation. And if it doesn't get done this legislative session, we will be here. we will continue to advocate and we will do it before the next legislative session and then we'll continue to do it every single legislative session until it gets done. And I think one thing that's important to note is we're asking for local authority um if if if it's not going to pass statewide, but obviously we want to see statewide provisions go through. This is not something as a Minneapolis city council that we want to just take up alone for our city. We want every single city to have these provisions so we can reduce gun violence, not just within our city borders. Any other questions? Okay, >> take a couple. >> Um, we we put this press conference together to honor all of the families and community members that are here. So, there are council members present for any topic that you want to discuss after this press conference is over. Thank you so much. Awesome.