Members of the Minnesota Asian Pacific Caucus spoke this afternoon at the state capital in reaction to this weekend’s deadly mass shooting amid Lunar New Year celebrations in California.
The shooting took place on Saturday night at a dance studio in Monterey Park, with a gunman killing at least 10 and injuring 10 more before taking his own life on Sunday afternoon during a standoff with police.
While speaking about the shooting, the caucus, made up of seven House members and three state senators, shared a legislative agenda that includes more ways to address problems facing the AAPI community in the state.
With the call to address problems facing the AAPI community, Rep. Kaoly Vang Her of St. Paul also shared her support for increased education around firearms.
“You know I had to go through a longer training for my hunter safety than I did to have a personal firearm,” Her shared. “So I think that there is still a lot more we can do to ensure that people who own firearms have the information they need to safely use their firearms.”
Among the legislative goals are bills aimed at helping boost non-profits and other community agencies that help Asian communities in the state.
Still, Her and other state legislators acknowledged that there is no quick fix to the issues facing the AAPI community.
“There is never any time in which we pass a bill that we think it's going to completely solve a problem,” Her said. “And so what I would say is that, at the risk of doing nothing, that is the alternative.”
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