Minnesota's elected officials say lawmaker shootings have shattered their sense of safety

The assassinations of Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and the attempted killings of Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, have put a spotlight on the safety of elected officials and security in the Minnesota Capitol building.
Authorities say the accused killer, Vance Boelter, had a hit list citing 45 state and federal officials and had visited two others Saturday morning before he shot the Hoffmans and murdered the Hortmans.
"Boelter planned his attack carefully. He researched his victims and their families. He used the Internet and other tools to find their addresses and names, the names of the family members. He conducted surveillance of their homes and took notes about the location of their homes," said Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota, John Thompson, during a press conference Monday. "It's no exaggeration to say this is the stuff of nightmares."
There has been discussion about safety around the state capitol for years, but the tragedy adds a new level of urgency. Several lawmakers told WCCO how the shootings shattered their sense of safety.
In the immediate aftermath, the names of towns and cities where state lawmakers live were removed from the Minnesota Legislature's website, where those details had been public for many years.
Anyone can enter the Minnesota State Capitol building without going through a metal detector or any sort of security screening. There are multiple ways to enter and not a single point of entry for the public, as is the case with other state capitols.
Former GOP Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Paul Gazelka said he wanted there to be changes nearly a decade ago when he was first elevated to that role. Now he believes these attacks will finally be the "catalyst for change."
"It is long overdue. When I was leader, I thought we should do it, but there's just a lot of people that really were against it from the standpoint of, it's the people's house. We want them to have easy access, and we do," he said. "But times have changed. They had changed even back then…it's common sense today."
Sen. Erin Maye Quade, DFL-Apple Valley, said she is not sure that fortifying the Capitol building is the right answer to the larger problem of violent rhetoric, though she described working there as "being in a fishbowl." She wants changes to prohibit guns within the building and hopes political discourse will shift in a way that the building can remain more accessible to the public.
"The thing that increases our safety is the way that we treat each other, the way we hold members and the public accountable for ratcheting up inflammatory rhetoric for the types of things that end up inciting violence," she said in an interview Monday. "How can we contribute to that kind of culture? Because that way can leave the people's house open."
"I'm very aware of the ways in which those things increase the perception of this is a place where dangerous things happen, and it leads to more dangerous things happening," she added.
U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, a Democrat representing Minnesota's Second District, said the attacks are reverberating to Washington, where Congress has already been on alert about safety for years. Craig said she does not ever do events without private security and that local law enforcement is made aware of her whereabouts whenever she is back in the state.
"Many of us have already had to take precautionary measures, but this was the worst case scenario where someone literally comes to your home where you feel safe," she said. "This is why a number of years ago, Congress started allocating dollars for members of Congress to fortify our home security systems and other things that I won't go into because most of us don't talk about this much, because we don't want to tip anyone off to the measures in which we've taken to try to keep ourselves and our families safe."
Craig said there was a meeting with Congressional leadership in the wake of the shootings in which members expressed concern that they do not have adequate security, despite the increase in resources in recent years.
The Minnesota Legislature is a part-time, citizen Legislature, which means lawmakers are in session for about half of the year and then they return to their communities where they live and often work in other capacities — whether that's as farmers, teachers, small business owners, attorneys and other roles.
"Many of us have other jobs, like really boring, normal jobs, and so, like, our world really isn't constructed to have the resources to do, like a big security protocol," Maye Quade said. "I'm just a suburban mom, I don't know how to put together a security apparatus, and I hate that that's something that we have to talk about."
In a statement, a bipartisan panel of lawmakers working on the Advisory Committee on Capitol Area Security — tasked with providing recommendations to the governor and Legislature about security strategies — did not specifically name what they believe needs to change in the wake of this, but said safety is top of mind.
"This horrific act of political violence highlights the vital importance of our continued diligence to ensure that members of the legislature, staff, those that work in State Government, and the public are safe within the walls of the State Capitol and around the Capitol complex," said DFL Rep. Kelly Moller, GOP Rep. Jim Nash, DFL Sen. Bonnie Westlin and GOP Sen. Warren Limmer in a statement. "As members of the Advisory Committee on Capitol Area Security, we are committed to continue working alongside our law enforcement partners and our colleagues in both the House and Senate to ensure the safety of everybody participating in our democratic process in Saint Paul."
The committee in its recent report said there has been $19 million allocated for security upgrades over the last five years. Part of their mission statement is that the "Capitol, Minnesota Senate, and State Office Buildings must remain open in both reality and perception."

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