Strib’s Pistol-Packing, Raw-Milk-Drinking Columnist Lectures Grieving City on Gun Debate Decorum

Welcome back to The Flyover, your daily digest of important, overlooked, and/or interesting Minnesota news stories.

"Do We Really Need to Say 'Gun Violence?'" Asks Person Paid to Think for a Living

If we've been hard on Karen Tolkkinen in the past, it's only because the Strib's greater Minnesota columnist is a one-trick pony—browbeating readers with reminders that rural Minnesota ain't monolithic, but also that its MAGA culture warriors are misunderstood—who's too dense to realize when that trick shouldn't be deployed. And if that sounds mean, you'll have to forgive me because: a) I just read Tolkkinen's mind-meltingly stupid column addressing last week's shooting at Annunciation Church; b) I attended Annunciation School from K-8; c) Jesus is famously pro-forgiveness, according to my Annunciation religion teachers.

Let's dive into that A topic...

Tolkkinen's latest, "Shooting sounds different in rural Minnesota than in the city" (gift link), is an offensive little "well, actually" exercise in filtering a Minneapolis mass shooting through her sympathies for and loyalties to gun culture.

We have her warning that the term assault rifle is "politically loaded." We have her helpfully explaining that mass killings don't always involve guns (sometimes they involve Timothy McVeigh or drunk drivers!), and that "people are spaced too closely together" in cities for residents to fire guns in public (thanks). We have her fretting that any gun control debates might "deepen the state’s political divisions and the rural-urban divide." We have her volunteer that, at one point in her life, she "voted for whichever candidate seemed stronger on the Second Amendment." Dumb, bad writing that should have been flagged by competent editors, sure, but then we have her masterfully dumb and bad passage below...

By the way, do we really need to say “gun violence?” Can’t we just say “deadly violence?” Guns are for many people a useful tool or hobby, and conflating them with violence is bound to drive division. In focusing on guns, we may be neglecting a vital component of what causes shooters to turn on society. I don’t know what that component is, but maybe it’s a reflection of how we treat each other.

Over on Bluesky, ex-media critic David Brauer described that position as "all violence matters." A self-described gun violence prevention advocate offered the following critique...

We say “gun violence” because a gun is the most lethal and accessible weapon, and that’s unique to the U.S. Guns—not cars or fertilizer or whatever—are the most common killer of American children under age 10. And the most common type of gun death is suicide (61% of gun deaths nationally, 48% in Minnesota) where Karen’s argument falls flat. Decades of research shows removing access to guns saves lives, especially in rural Minnesota where suicide rates are higher. We’re all going to die (thanks, Joni Ernst!) but every single gun death is a preventable tragedy. We have proof that better laws and less access/lower lethality reduces deaths. Good gun laws save lives.

Tolkkinen is welcome to hit the one note she plays as hard and often as she likes. But at this moment, with two children dead and 19 people injured in our community because of a mass shooter who wielded a small arsenal of guns? Don't scold us with your pedantry. I dare you to read your screamingly oblivious column out loud to Annunciation families; explain to them how much they'd "benefit from everyone listening to the other side." Here's a message for you coming from "the other side," Karen: Grieving Minneapolitans don't give a single fuck about bristling Otter Tail County gun nuts right now.

In other news, earlier today Gov. Tim Walz announced plans to call for a special legislative session to hash out new gun control measures. "Passage seems unlikely in a closely divided Legislature," Minnesota Reformer's Michelle Griffith notes. Sounds like elected officials are working to oppose the will of most Minnesotans—maybe that's a column-worthy angle.

2 Opportunities to View Rejected State Fair Art

Of the 2,835 pieces submitted for this year's Minnesota State Fair's Fine Arts Competition, only 336 were granted entry into the juried exhibition. Lucky local art lovers will have not one, not three, but two opportunities to view some of that rejected work, Alex V. Cipolle reports for MPR News. The Douglas Flanders & Associates gallery in Minneapolis is hosting “State Fair Rejects” exhibition through September 27, while St. Paul's Burl Community Art Gallery is hosting its similar "Rejected!" exhibit through September 30.

Are these forbidden works of art transgressive and shocking, the visual equivalent of a GG Allin show? Not so much. Minneapolis artist Mike Welton tells Cipolle it's really just a numbers game.

“It's one person's opinion,” says Welton, whose painting "QUEER" didn't impress that one State Fair judge. “Not everyone likes my art.” 

Folks really seem to like eyeballing attempted State Fair art, however.

“It's probably one of our most anticipated exhibits of the year. It draws a remarkable crowd. It sparks a lot of conversation,” Burl gallery's Beth Stoneberg says. “People are really rooting for the underdog, the person that perseveres and has resilience and keeps creating.”

2 Shitty Things Coming to University of Minnesota

Should the following events be allowed on campus? Free country, for now at least. But is it our American right to gripe loudly about 'em? Sure is!

First up: Gummy authoritarian toady Charlie Kirk will bring his "American Comeback Tour" to the U on September 22. You can register to debate the gum-forward founder of Turning Point USA here, though probably not on the topic of his humongous gums. Predictably, Kirk is currently using his massive platform to vilify trans people in the wake of the Annunciation shooting.

Next up: The government wants you to bully and harass non-white people in and around the border. The U.S. Border Patrol is hosting a recruitment webinar on campus Wednesday, with enticements like "EARN UP TO $30,000 IN RECRUITMENT INCENTIVES." Writes the top-voted Redditor on the r/uofmn forum, "It would be awful if a bunch of people sent in fake, qualified resumes and then ghosted them when the interview came. Truly terrible if people did that!" Truly!

Finally, on a (hopefully) less irritating U of M note: I'll be working with one or two Gopher journalism students throughout the fall semester, which kicked off today. Hopefully you'll be seeing their bylines in Racket soon.

That's a Wrap on the MN State Fair

With 1,940,869 attendees, the the Minnesota State Fair's 2025 run is officially its fifth-most-attended ever. That's according to this debriefing document issued Tuesday by the fair PR team, in which you can view contest winners and facts/figures galore—did you know the Miracle of Birth Center produced 142 barnyard babies this year? If you don't feel like reading, watch the freak below eat a buffet of State Fair food from inside his car; misophonia suffers should steer clear!