Newtown Action Alliance Demands Immediate Action After Minneapolis Catholic School Shooting
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2025
Contact:
John Kelley
917-679-6475
jkelley@newtownaction.org
Newtown Action Alliance Demands Immediate Action After Minneapolis Catholic School Shooting
Newtown, CT – Once again, America is shattered by another horrific school shooting. This morning at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, two children—just 8 and 10 years old—were killed during a school Mass. At least 17 others were injured, 14 of them children, and several remain in critical condition. The gunman, a man in his early 20s armed with a semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun, and a pistol, opened fire from outside the church before taking his own life.
Statement from Po Murray, Chairwoman of Newtown Action Alliance
"This incident was the 286th mass shooting of 2025. Just yesterday, gunfire from an AR-15 sprayed across the street behind Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Minneapolis, killing one man and wounding six others. Together, these back-to-back attacks underscore the devastating reality that no community, no school, and no child is safe from America’s epidemic of gun violence.
As the neighbor of the Sandy Hook shooter, I know all too well the terror that leaves communities scarred forever. My heart breaks for the families in Minneapolis experiencing this unimaginable nightmare. Two innocent children brutally struck down during a Mass, in a place meant for peace—not violence.
But praying won’t disarm school shooters. Donald Trump’s call for "prayers" is not only inadequate—it’s infuriating. While he prays, children are hunted and killed by shooters with weapons of war. Prayers are useless when legislation capable of preventing such atrocities sits idle in Congress.
Congress is complicit in this bloodshed. Their failure to pass an assault weapons ban, universal background checks, or safe storage laws is not negligence—it’s a choice. Each minute they stall, more lives are at risk.
The shooter shot through the church windows from outside the building. Schools across the country are investing billions in security measures, but we know that “hardening” alone will never be enough to stop a gunman armed with weapons of war. True safety comes from preventing these weapons from ever reaching our communities in the first place. That is the responsibility of Congress—and they have failed.
This tragedy also highlights another failure: the absence of a coordinated federal response to support victims and traumatized communities. With Donald Trump reversing Joe Biden’s policies and shuttering the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, survivors and families are left without coordinated federal resources, trauma care, or guidance in their darkest moments. Instead of strengthening protections, Trump is dismantling them—and children are paying the price with their lives.
No more excuses. We demand Congress and the Minnesota State Legislature to act—immediately—to pass an assault weapons ban, close the background check loopholes, enforce safe storage for all guns, repeal the civil liability shield for the gun industry, and invest in community mental health and violence prevention programs. Our children deserve more than thoughts—and certainly more than prayers. They deserve protection. The time to act is now."###
Newtown Action Alliance (http://alliance.newtownaction.org/) is a Newtown-based, national grassroots organization formed after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. Our mission is to achieve the steady and continuous reduction of gun violence through legislative and cultural changes.