Readers Write: Red flag laws, school board races, Metro Transit, leaked Signal chats

Opinion editor’s note: Strib Voices publishes letters from readers online and in print each day. To contribute, click here.

•••

I began reading the lead article about Minnesota’s red flag laws when — wait a minute! (“Minnesota’s red flag law works, but use spotty,” Oct. 5.) There’s a computer game that allows players to pretend they are going on a shooting spree in a middle school? What is going on? Are there no laws prohibiting what I believe should be considered contraband? Among everything currently going on in the world that I find outrageous, this moves to the top of the list.

Mary O’Brien, Chaska

•••

Thank you to Star Tribune reporter Jeffrey Meitrodt for “Minnesota red flag laws work, but use is spotty.” Minnesota’s red flag law (involving extreme risk protection orders, or ERPOs) was passed during the 2023 legislative session. More needs to be done to publicize the availability of this tool that can be used to intervene before gun violence like suicide or a mass shooting occurs. I wonder if family or friends saw any red flags with the Annunciation shooter where a petition could have been filed to remove access to guns so that this tragic event could have been avoided.

Anyone concerned that a family member is at risk for hurting themselves or others should contact their local law enforcement or county attorney to discuss whether a petition for an ERPO should be filed. ERPOs are a tool available to all of us that will help save lives.

•••

The article “Gun safety push may hinge on centrists” (Oct. 4) was mind-numbing — not because of the reporting but because of the lawmakers’ responses.

When asked about their positions on banning assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines — guns often used in mass shootings — several legislators deflected or evaded the question.

Sen. Julia Coleman, who opposed Minnesota’s 2023 red flag and background check laws, said the Legislature had “failed these children,” then pivoted to handgun deaths. But that wasn’t the issue at hand.

Sen. Jim Abeler, another opponent of the 2023 gun law reforms, said he’s “open” to discussions but claimed they shouldn’t happen “under political pressure.” That’s how representative government works — public pressure is the process.

Sen. Judy Seeberger also avoided the question, shifting to handguns. As a firefighter-paramedic, she of all people should know the catastrophic injuries these weapons inflict. Her refusal to take a position is especially disappointing.

These are reasonable questions. Minnesotans deserve straight answers — especially from lawmakers whose votes could decide whether we take meaningful action to prevent the next mass shooting.

Karen Bair, Minneapolis

•••

A plea for those who think that banning high-capacity assault rifles would be useless based on the belief that those who want to harm others will find other ways to do so. For the sake of the greater good I urge you to consider how many more people would have been harmed during the attack on the synagogue in Manchester, England, if the assailant — instead of a knife — had had a high-capacity assault rifle (“Deadly terror attack at U.K. synagogue on Jewish holy day,” Oct. 3).

In response to the article “Political divisions overshadow suburban Twin Cities school board races” on Oct. 6, I would like to comment on what is going on. The claim is that these races, which traditionally have been nonpartisan, have become partisan in nature due to the polarization of our culture. This can be explained very easily. It is due to the progressives/leftists who control the school boards and their indoctrination of children. If the leftists were not engaged in indoctrination or promoting DEI policies, the people on the other side of the political spectrum would not react to their policies, because they would be in agreement with what they are teaching children.

Are we to believe that the leftists running the schools are expecting everyone to accept their radical practices without any blowback or reaction? This is nonsense. Yet, when there is a response to these policies, the leftists accuse the people on the right of engaging in partisanship.

Do leftists really believe that the populace is simply required to accept their policies and ideas and shut up? This is ridiculous, especially since taxpayers are funding this apparatus called public education. Taxpayers certainly should have a say in what goes on in the school system since they are paying for it.

If we simply get back to reading, writing, math and science, schools can enjoy success, and all parents can support good public schools once again.

Brian Marum, Woodbury

I have ridden public transit in many different cities: Washington, D.C.; New York; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Duluth; Berlin; Hamburg, Germany; Leipzig, Germany; Mexico City; and Lima, Peru, to name a few. Everywhere I’ve seen unwashed homeless people, drug addicts, drunken people, people with mental illness and people with severe cognitive impairment. Public transit is a public space, and these people live and will continue to live in our communities unless you intend to incarcerate or execute them all.

We can all learn to be more gracious and kind. We either learn to use shared transportation or our planet is toast.

Betty Lotterman, St. Paul

In the Oct. 5 edition of the Minnesota Star Tribune, we saw an unbelievable report about a high-ranking administration official conducting extremely sensitive chats on his phone in public (“Officials discussed sending elite Army troops to Portland”). In the spirit of the NPR program “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me!” in which contestants have to choose the correct answer among three completely implausible alternatives, I offer the following:

The answers are in the Star Tribune’s mind-bending report, and the truth is stranger and scarier than any fiction.

•••

My congratulations to the Star Tribune and reporter Andy Mannix for the scoop reported on the front page of Sunday’s paper. If I were Mannix, I’d laminate and frame the response from the White House spokesperson that “these private conversations ... are shamefully being reported on by morally bankrupt reporters.” It deserves a place of pride above his desk. The anonymous source is a true patriot. I particularly loved Anthony Salisbury’s sniping at Patel, calling him a “giant douche canoe.” Keep up the good work!