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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Minnesotans Mark Sixth Months Since Sandy Hook

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Friday, June 14, 2013   

DULUTH, Minn. – It was six months ago today when a mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, left 26 people dead, including 20 first graders.

The tragedy put a national spotlight on gun safety, but as Joan Peterson with Protect Minnesota explains, Congress has been unable to pass any legislation, and all the while, gun-related deaths in this country continue to mount.

"Since 12/14 about 5,000 people have been killed by bullets and that doesn't include suicide,” she says. “You know, that's more people than died in the Iraq war. If we can't do something about that, who are we as a country? Why would we not?"

A vigil on behalf of the Sandy Hook victims was held Thursday night in Minneapolis, and this morning, a rally is planned in Duluth.

One of the main objectives in reducing gun violence, says Peterson, is having background checks completed with all gun purchases in the U.S., so felons and those with dangerous mental illnesses cannot take advantage of the current loopholes.

"We've kept quite a few people who shouldn't have guns from getting them from federally-licensed dealers,” she says. “Why the resistance to expanding it to private sales is beyond me. I don't understand why every gun sale shouldn't have a background check. It just makes sense."

In Minnesota, there were various bills introduced with a goal of reducing gun violence. In the end, the only one that was brought to the floor and passed was a bill that invests $1 million to have authorities enter tens of thousands of missing records into the national database.

"So there is a recognition from our legislators that background checks are important,” she says. “It's just going to take having them realize that it's also not a good idea for them to buy their guns from private sellers with no background checks. So we will be back."

Peterson says her group understands that expanded background checks won't stop every shooting, but she says it will make a difference.

Those opposed to expanded background checks are concerned it could lead to some type of national gun registry, although background check records are not part of a registry and the record is destroyed within 24 hours.

They also claim it would be an infringement of their Second Amendment rights, even though the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the checks are constitutionally sound.





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