Minnesota governor orders state to collect gun-related insurance claims data for violence prevention
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz on Tuesday signed two executive orders, including one that directs the state’s Commerce Department to begin collecting data about gun-related insurance claims, with the goal of reducing gun violence.
The orders, 25-12 and 25-13, direct a number of state agencies to begin pursuing data strategies to reduce gun violence. They follow months of back and forth in the state’s legislature regarding gun safety, spurred by a mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis last August that left two children dead and nearly two dozen people injured. Walz’s attempts to call a special session to pass new laws on gun violence failed after negotiations between Democrat and Republican state lawmakers faltered, even as a recent poll found the majority of Minnesotans support some gun-violence prevention measures.
Along with the charge for the Commerce Department to work with insurers to collect and analyze firearm-related claims — which the state claimed will help to demonstrate the financial and societal impacts of guns — the orders also direct the state’s Department of Public Safety to expand public education, training and best practices for law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, schools and mental health professionals to prevent individuals in crisis from accessing firearms through Extreme Risk Protection Orders, or ERPOs. The ERPO data will be tracked and reported to increase transparency and effectiveness, a governor’s news release said.
In addition to the data-collection mandate, the orders also call for the creation of a a Statewide Safety Council, which would convene leaders from law enforcement, education, mental health and community organizations to develop a “blueprint for preventing mass violence, domestic terrorism, and politically motivated attacks,” the news release said. The council is tasked with making policy and funding recommendations to the governor.
“Gun violence has inflicted heartbreak and loss for families in Minnesota and across the country time and time again. Enough is enough,” Walz said. “We have repeatedly met with Republican legislators to find a path forward but were met with excuses and stonewalling, so today I am taking executive action. These executive orders lay a critical foundation for the upcoming legislative session, and now we need Republicans in the Legislature to show courage and pass comprehensive gun violence prevention legislation, including a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault-style weapons. Minnesotans are demanding action.”
