PRESS RELEASE: Hennepin County Had the Laws to Stop the Loring Park Shooter. Officials Chose Not to Use Them.

Three chances to keep guns away from the Loring Park shooter. Three decisions not to act.

Now, Sen. Dibble and Protect Minnesota want new gun control instead of answers.

ST. PAUL, Minn. The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus today responded to calls from Sen. Scott Dibble and anti-gun group Protect Minnesota for new gun control following Wednesday’s shooting at Shoreline Plaza in Minneapolis, which killed two residents and wounded two Minneapolis police officers.

According to court records reported by the Star Tribune, existing Minnesota law gave Hennepin County officials three separate opportunities to keep firearms away from Carlton Johnson II.

The plea deal. In 2018, Johnson was charged with domestic assault after his sister told police he threw her around an apartment and said he “was not afraid to shoot people in the face.” A domestic assault conviction would have barred him from possessing firearms under Minnesota law. Prosecutors dropped the charge and let him plead to misdemeanor property damage in 2019.

The permit. Johnson had 34 criminal cases, two assault charges, a 2012 conviction for violating a domestic abuse no-contact order, and a 2023 harassment restraining order for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman and sending her “numerous explicit death threats.” Minnesota law allows a sheriff to deny a permit to carry when documented evidence shows the applicant poses a danger to self or the public. According to news reports, the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office reissued his permit on April 9, 2026.

The threats. In June, Johnson walked through his building with a gun, telling residents he “would kill someone,” then flashed it again two days later. A neighbor reported him to the Minneapolis Police. The case reached County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s office on August 20. Her office declined to charge him because the gun “did not leave his waistband,” and declined to seek an extreme risk protection order under Minnesota’s red flag law.

“Minnesota did not lack a law for any one of these moments. It lacked officials willing to use the ones we have,” said Bryan Strawser, Chair of the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus. “Prosecutors pled away the conviction that would have made him a prohibited person. The sheriff looked at his record and handed him a permit. The county attorney looked at a man walking the halls with a gun, saying he would kill someone, and decided that was not enough for a charge or a red flag order. Every one of those was a choice made by an elected official.”

“Sen. Dibble and Protect Minnesota looked at those same facts and concluded the answer is to restrict the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding, peaceable gun owners who had nothing to do with this,” Strawser said. “The laws were there, nobody used them. Passing a new bill does not fix that. Asking the people who had the authority why they did nothing with it does.”

“Hennepin County voters will elect a new County Attorney this November,” Strawser added. “They deserve one who will prosecute violent criminals and protect the public instead of looking for reasons not to.”