A Republican-backed school safety package that would have steered state dollars to one-time security grants and widened eligibility for Safe Schools programs hit a wall in the Minnesota House Education Finance Committee on Tuesday, April 14, 2026. The stall came as parents of students wounded in last summer’s Annunciation Catholic School shooting, along with Gov. Tim Walz, pressed lawmakers to focus on limits for assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines instead of shifting money around. Lawmakers left the committee without a deal, setting up competing DFL and GOP agendas at the State Capitol.
What the GOP plan would have done
The principal bill in the package, HF3492, would have authorized school safety facility grants of up to $500,000 per qualifying school and appropriated $25 million from the general fund while canceling $25 million previously earmarked for the Northern Lights Express rail project, according to the bill text. Companion measures in the package would have broadened Safe Schools revenue and grant eligibility to charter, tribal contract and nonpublic schools. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes and the committee agendas list HF3492, HF3493 and HF3495 as the vehicle for those changes. Minnesota House records show the set of school safety proposals landed on the Education Finance calendar this spring.
Why it stalled in committee
DFL members said the Republican package did not answer the central demand from Annunciation families for new gun restrictions, and they voted to block the measure from advancing out of committee, according to reporting on the hearing. Republicans countered that the package was a pragmatic, layered approach meant to deliver immediate resources to schools and broaden assistance to nonpublic campuses. As one legislator put it in committee, “Guns are what schools are being hardened against.” KARE11 reported on the vote and lawmakers’ competing rationales.
DFL's alternative
DFL members signaled they will bring forward their own school safety package, HF3602, which centers on mandatory school safety plans, a School Safety Advisory Council and additional funding for the Minnesota School Safety Center. That bill was filed in February and remains before the House Education Finance Committee for consideration, per the legislature’s bill page. Minnesota Revisor of Statutes outlines the DFL approach, which lawmakers say pairs facility investments with statewide planning and threat-assessment resources.
Parents and the governor push for gun limits
Families from Annunciation have repeatedly urged elected officials to pursue bans on assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines, priorities that Gov. Tim Walz has said must be part of any meaningful legislative response. Parents and students testified at the Capitol this winter, and the governor’s package includes a raft of gun-related proposals that DFL leaders have urged the Legislature to adopt. The Aug. 27, 2025 shooting at Annunciation Catholic School, which killed two children and wounded many others, remains the central backdrop to the debate. Forum News Service and national accounts documented the testimony and the governor’s remarks, while contemporary reporting summarized the Aug. 27 attack and its toll. Associated Press provides a timeline of the shooting and its aftermath.
What comes next
With the House makeup requiring at least some bipartisan support to move gun restrictions, the fight is likely to play out in committee rooms this spring as DFL leaders press their proposal and Republicans press layered security investments. GOP lawmakers said they will keep pushing targeted security funding and threat-assessment pilots while negotiating language they say can pass. DFL members say those measures will not substitute for limits on weapons that parents and the governor have singled out. The committee schedule shows the education bills will remain active on the calendar as lawmakers haggle over funding and policy priorities. Forum News Service reported lawmakers’ comments and how parents framed their requests at the Capitol.
