Edina City Council Town Hall Meeting on Proposed Firearm Safety and Safe Storage Ordinance - January 6, 2026

The Edina City Council held a town-hall public hearing on Tuesday, January 6, 2026, beginning at 6:04 p.m. in Council Chambers at Edina City Hall. All five council members were present: Councilmembers Agnew, Jackson, Pierce, Risser, and Mayor Hovland. The sole agenda item was Ordinance 2025-17, a proposed contingent Firearm Safety and Safe Storage Ordinance. After nearly two and a half hours of public testimony, the council took no action and said it would consider the ordinance at its regular meeting on January 20, 2026. The meeting adjourned at 8:19 p.m.

Agenda and Meeting Process

• The council unanimously adopted the published agenda (motion by Member Jackson, second by Member Agnew).
• Mayor Hovland explained that Minnesota law currently preempts city firearm regulation, so the proposed ordinance would be conditional. It would take effect only if the state repealed or changed preemption and the council later passed a resolution specifying what is enforceable.
• The city attorney presented legal background; speakers were limited to three minutes; written comments were accepted through the Better Together Edina website until midnight Sunday, January 11, 2026.

Proposed Ordinance and Legal Context

• City Attorney Dave Kendall cited Minnesota Statute 471.633, which preempts all city authority to regulate firearms, ammunition, and their components, with a limited exception for regulating firearm discharge. He noted Edina already makes discharging a firearm illegal.
• The draft ordinance is modeled on a St. Paul ordinance and is intended to regulate semi-automatic weapons, binary triggers, large-capacity magazines, and similar items associated with mass shootings.
• The key local difference is the effective-date mechanism: the Edina ordinance would not become enforceable until the council adopted a resolution after any change in state law. Mr. Kendall said this was intended to avoid the ambiguity being litigated in the St. Paul case between the City of St. Paul and the Gun Owners Caucus.

Public Comments and Testimony

Support for the Ordinance

• Fletcher Merkel's grandparents, Ron and Carol, spoke in favor, describing the loss of their grandson at the Annunciation Church shooting. They said the next day would have been his ninth birthday and urged the council to act.
• Sarah Paisley, an Edina mom and leader of the new Edina Moms Demand Action chapter, said the group already has 365 members. She called gun violence the number one killer of children and asked each council member to act with courage.
• Erin Zamoff, a Protect Minnesota board member, cited research that mass shootings involving assault weapons result in six times as many people shot and twice as many killed, and that large-capacity magazines increase the number of people killed by more than 60 percent and the number wounded by more than 100 percent. She also cited the federal ban on large-capacity magazines of more than 10 rounds from 1994 to 2004.
• Karen Bertulli, a lawyer and parent, described the Uvalde school shooting and said an Everytown poll found 88 percent of Minnesota respondents were concerned about children being harmed in mass shootings. She called the ordinance a first step against weapons of war.
• Dr. Trish Valusek, a pediatric trauma surgeon on duty at Children's Hospital on August 27, said gunshot wounds have been the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 17 since 2020, and that the rate of gun-related child deaths has increased 106 percent since 2013.
• Dr. Julia Heneghan, a pediatric critical care physician, said firearms are the number one cause of death for American children and adolescents and described caring for children injured or killed by guns.
• Other supporters included Annunciation-connected parents and survivors, students from Students Demand Action, educators, physicians, faith leaders, and veterans. Pastor David Lose of Mount Olive Lutheran Church, who accompanied Fletcher Merkel's family, said the shooting did not have to happen and urged passage. Grace Verbrugge, a former Annunciation student, described learning about the shooting by text from her mother. Tess Rada, whose third-grade daughter was at Annunciation, described her family's PTSD. Teachers Stephen Sanger and Joy Dunn, students Gabriella Olson and Mia, and resident Laura Thrane, whose niece was killed at Sandy Hook, also urged passage.
• Veterans for Peace chapter representative Michael Orange and retired scientist Bill Kaemmerer argued that military-style weapons are not protected by the Second Amendment. State Representative Julie Greene, a parent of an Annunciation student, said her family's names were on the shooter's hit list and pledged to work at the state legislature.

Opposition and Alternative Views

• Dave Wright, a longtime Edina resident, opposed the ordinance. He argued it is preempted, raises Second Amendment problems, exposes the city to costly litigation, would criminalize law-abiding residents, and would not stop criminals. He recommended enforcing existing laws, education, safe-storage outreach, and mental health support, and submitted a briefing memo.
• Bob Elmore asked the council to focus on societal changes rather than guns, noting that firearms were widely available in 1926 without school shootings.
• Doug Bakker, who said he lost a son to drugs and a daughter to suicide by gun, opposed the ordinance as a waste of time and money and called for more mental health investment.
• Dan Nye argued the Second Amendment's text is clear and that the Annunciation shooter, not law-abiding gun owners, was responsible.
• David Buyse said guns don't kill people; people kill people, and urged attention to mental health and accountability rather than banning objects.
• Janie Weston said local action is useless until the state acts and urged efforts at the state and federal levels, citing Japan's gun laws.
• Kirk Aadalen, testifying by phone, said the council currently lacks legal authority to pass gun regulations; he encouraged the council to support the regulations' goals and pressure state and federal officials.
• Wayne Carlson proposed mandatory gun-safety training for gun buyers, and a father of three who described himself as a Second Amendment supporter said he supported responsible gun ownership but not military-style weapons.

Key Outcomes

• No vote was taken on Ordinance 2025-17.
• The council will continue consideration at its regular meeting on January 20, 2026.
• Written public testimony will be accepted through midnight on Sunday, January 11, 2026, via Better Together Edina.
• The meeting adjourned at 8:19 p.m. by unanimous vote (motion by Member Agnew, second by Member Pierce). The minutes of this meeting were later approved by the council on January 20, 2026.