Tim Walz Rips Gun Owners After Minnesota Church Shooting: ‘You Certainly Don’t Need Them in Church’

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) lambasted pro-Second Amendment Americans following the deadly shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church last week, telling a crowd that they “certainly don’t need” their guns in church and that there are a lot of gun owners who “know you do not need those damn things.”

Walz made his comment during a speech at the Labor Day Picnic in Duluth on Monday. “It’s everything except guns,” Walz said, mocking those who looked for reasons behind the shooting that killed two children and injured 18 other people.

“It’s everything, apparently, in the world for these people, rather than trying to address the issue,” he continued. “There’s a lot of gun owners here who also know you do not need those damn things. You certainly don’t need them in church. And we certainly need to strengthen the rules that people who are struggling don’t get their hands on them.”

In Minneapolis, residents can carry a gun in public if they have a valid permit to carry a firearm; residents must meet certain requirements, like being 21 years old, passing a firearms training course, passing a background check, and applying at their county sheriff’s office for the permit. Minnesotans with a valid permit are barred from carrying their weapons on private property like churches and businesses, if a sign is posted, as well as other places like public schools.

Walz’s comments come less than a week after 23-year-old Robin Westman shot up Annunciation Catholic Church. Westman — who was born with the first name Robert before changing it in 2020 — wrote he was “tired of being trans” in a manifesto discovered shortly after the attack, which killed 10-year-old Harper Moyski and 8-year-old Fletcher Merkel. YouTube videos showed Westman wrote a number of hate-filled comments on the weapons used in the shooting, including “Kill Donald Trump” and “burn Israel.”

A moment before his comments above, Walz thanked the previous speaker, Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party Chairman Richard Carlbom, for “holding a bunch of cowards accountable after the murder of two children.” Walz was referring to a statement last week from Carlbom that said the “epidemic” of gun violence must stop and that “all options must be on the table to end gun violence.”

You can watch Walz’s Labor Day comment above, thanks to a video captured by Northern News Now. The local CBS and NBC affiliate streamed Walz’s full nine-minute speech on its Facebook page, which you can watch by clicking here. 

And you can read what Walz had to say about the viral rumor that President Trump had died over Labor Day Weekend by clicking here.

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