Andrea Parrott

Reverend Sarah Campbell’s faith compels her to fight for health reform. “It’s completely unjust,” she said of the current health care system.

White males have committed most of the mass shootings in this country, but no one assumes that all white males are violent, noted Sue Abderholden, executive director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Minnesota.  Why then do people make such a broad assumption for mental illness? “Someone with schizophrenia is not more likely to be violent than you or me,” Abderholden said. "Only a tiny percentage of people who commit gun violence have a mental illness."

The debate over gun control has continued unabated since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that left 26 people, mostly children, dead. In some respects, the debate started earlier with the 12 shooting deaths at a movie theater in Colorado. In other respects, the debate began long before either of those incidents.

We want to hear from you. Where do you stand on gun regulation in Minnesota? Share your thoughts in a quick video or submit your contributions to the Free Speech Zone.

Siran Bogan speaks in such a quiet voice it is often difficult to understand him. He is unable to walk or feed himself, and except for shadows, he has lost his sight. The nearly 40-year-old man has an undergraduate chemistry degree, but now spends much of his time in bed due to the crippling effects of multiple sclerosis (MS). “He needs total care,” said his mother Clara Nakumbe.