Action: Urge legislators to protect all children!

Action Alert: Urge legislators to protect all children!

Protect the safety of our kids in school and online!

Our Children live in a new era. Our laws should reflect that!

We live in a unique culture and time when children need more protection: in school, in public, and online. This has become even more pressing in wake of the tragic shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis and the shocking negative mental health effects from social media.

The Minnesota Catholic Conference believes this comprehensive three-tiered approach that addresses gun violence, school safety and online protection is the way forward.

Ban high-capacity ammunition magazines!

We must ban Feeding devices that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition and allow a shooter to continuously fire bullets without reloading. Statistics show that in mass shooting where 4+ people were killed (2015-2022), incidents with high-capacity magazines led to:

More than twice as many people killed
Nearly 10x more people wounded per incident (on average)
Nearly 5x more people shot per incident (on average)

Help Keep Students Safe at School: Expand Safe Schools Funding

School safety is a concern for every school—public, nonpublic, charter, and tribal. When one school is vulnerable, all schools are vulnerable. Parents, students, educators, and volunteers deserve a clear commitment from the State of Minnesota to invest in protecting every child and adult in our schools.

We must put our money to protect our vulnerable children by increasing funding in schools to at least $100 per enrolled student in state aid to private, charter, and tribal schools, and increase the school board approve levy authority for long-term resources. A broad coalition of Minnesota organizations representing more than 72,000 students agrees: Increase Safe Schools Funding.

Protect Our Children Online!

Technically today, 13 years old is the required age to open a social media account, but nearly 40 percent of children between the ages of eight and 12 use these platforms. Social Media Companies are not enforcing the requirements and is hurting our children.

Social Media addicts by design, and the addiction has created mental health challenges for today’s youth. Unsupervised time online also leaves youth susceptible to harm. The reality is, parents cannot combat the impact of social media alone. They are looking for help. The “safeguards” tech corporations have implemented for youth users have not proven to solve the problem.

We can do more! We must pass the Stop the Harms from Addictive Social Media (SHASM) law giving parents the ability to approve the creation of social media account for our young children and monitor the amount of time they are spending on the platforms. This could have a big impact on the mental health crisis happening among our children.

See our one-pager for more information