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The parents of children wounded and killed in last week’s shooting at a Minneapolis Catholic church pressed Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday to move beyond condolences and support bipartisan legislation to curb gun violence.
During a day of somber visits to Annunciation Catholic Church, where the attack occurred, and Children’s Minnesota Hospital, where many victims are still being treated, Vance and second lady Usha Vance met privately with grieving families and community leaders.
Among them was Harry Kaiser, whose 12-year-old daughter, Lydia, remains hospitalized. Kaiser told reporters that he read a letter aloud to the vice president urging him to “earnestly support the study of what is wrong with our culture” and to pursue “commonsense bipartisan legislation” despite opposition from gun lobbies.
“Will you please promise to pursue, despite powerful lobbies, some commonsense bipartisan legislation as a starting point so we can come out of our corners and find the values that we share — so that this time some progress is made?” Kaiser said. “Thoughts and prayers haven’t been enough.”
Kaiser’s daughter is one of 15 children injured in the shooting, alongside three adults. Two children — Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10 — were killed.
Vance softens tone after criticism
Vance has previously bristled at critics who dismiss “thoughts and prayers” as hollow. But on Wednesday, after hearing directly from victims’ families, he struck a more conciliatory note.
“They were rational, reasonable people despite their grief, and I can’t imagine what I would be like in this moment of heartbreak,” Vance told reporters. “All they ask is that we look very seriously at the root causes, that we look very seriously at ways to prevent crazy people who are about to shoot up a school from getting access to firearms.”
He suggested that “clear signs of derangement” in the 23-year-old accused gunman slipped through the cracks, framing the tragedy as part of a broader mental health crisis fueling mass shootings.
Families urge action
Lydia’s mother, Leah Kaiser, invoked a saying often quoted by the school principal: “When you pray, move your feet.”
“Vice President Vance, you have enormous authority. Please, use this moment to move your feet and transcend our political divides to promote peace and unity and hope. This is what the people of the United States will hold you accountable to,” she said.
Asked how Vance responded to the Kaisers’ plea, his office did not answer directly and instead pointed to his public remarks.
At the hospital, Vance also spoke by phone with Weston Halsne, a fifth grader who survived after a bullet fragment lodged near his neck narrowly missed his carotid artery.
Political ripple effects
The massacre has already reshaped Minnesota politics. Gov. Tim Walz is weighing a special legislative session to consider stricter gun laws, according to a senior aide. Asked whether he supports that push, Vance declined to take a position but said, “There’s a strong desire from across the political spectrum to do something so these shootings are less common.”
“I’m not going to tell Minnesota lawmakers or the governor exactly how they should respond,” he added. “It’s important they take steps that are durable and that are going to work.”
Earlier in the day, the vice president and his wife spent two hours in private meetings with church leaders and the parents of the two children killed. They later visited the sanctuary of Annunciation Catholic Church to pay their respects.
For the families of the victims, the message was clear: expressions of prayer are not enough without action.
