Last Wednesday, the usual miserable slow traffic in the southern rim of downtown Minneapolis congealed into an even more miserable crawl, as police responded to a mass shooting in and around a downtown apartment building.
By the time the literal and figurative smoke cleared, three were dead (including the shooter) and six, including two Minneapolis Police officers, were injured.
The shooter, Carlton Johnson, was in the process of being evicted from his apartment — for which he was paying a little over $100 a month:
17/
— CrimeWatchMpls (@CrimeWatchMpls) September 3, 2026
This leech from Chicago was paying $105/month in rent to live in downtown Minneapolis at Loring Towers, and you were paying the rest.
We don't have a housing shortage problem, we have a loser leech problem. pic.twitter.com/ECCXqzPlHp
On Wednesday night, his ex-wife apparently brought his kids around for visitation. Johnson allegedly started shooting, and ran into the building, where he killed two elderly neighbors before being cornered by the police in a firefight complicated by haze from an apparently-ruptured fire extinguisher.
As usual, the bodies weren't cold yet when the ghouls of the anti-2nd Amendment movement sprang into action:
Some Minnesota groups are demanding action after a mass shooting in downtown Minneapolis Wednesday afternoon. Three people died, including the suspected shooter, in the incident near 15 East Grant Street. https://t.co/uHBsoIwas7
— WCCO | CBS News Minnesota (@WCCO) September 4, 2026
They "demanded action"...against who?
As usual, the law-abiding gun owner.
And I'm starting to think there's a reason for that. Because when someone cuts loose with a spree killing, the first question I'm starting to ask is "how did government screw up?"
Because especially in Minneapolis, the question isn't so much "if" as "How?" Johnson didn't have a long rap sheet — but not for lack of trying on his part; Johnson apparently had issues:
The complaint cited multiple instances of violent and threatening behavior since the beginning of the year, including assaulting a resident on the apartment premises, walking around the apartment block with a gun "displayed on his person" to multiple staff members while other residents were present, threatening a resident with a gun, and telling residents he planned to kill someone.
And if crime, and likely crime, isn't getting dealt with in Minneapolis, there is only one suspect:
🚨 BREAKING: Soros-backed County Attorney Mary Moriarty declined to charge Carlton Johnson II after he threatened a neighbor and brandished a weapon.
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) September 3, 2026
Johnson had a lengthy history, yet this far-left prosecutor allowed him to remain on the streets.
Now two people are dead. pic.twitter.com/SJaxmasTqS
The Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus — the state's primary 2nd Amendment advocacy group - runs down all of the missed opportunities in this case:
The guy had record — of being charged. Not prosecuted.
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.
A domestic abuse conviction, even a misdemeanor, puts a hit on one's National Instant Check System database, barring one from buying firearms, as well as having a carry permit (or carrying a gun at all, in "constitutional carry" states).
Did someone say "permit?"
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.
That's precisely the sort of thing would-be permit applicants are warned will scupper your application for a carry permit.
But not in Minneapolis, apparently.
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.
The Minnesota DFL passed an "Extreme Risk Protection Order" - aka "Red Flag Law" - three years ago. To the extent that "Red Flag Laws" are of use for anything but saying "the DFL did something about 'gun violence'", this is the sort of case that would seem to be it — a guy who's clearly slipping.
And yet Mary Moriarty's office did nothing.
“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.”
And yet the first people the Demcorats came after — even before the literal and figurative smoke cleared — was the law-abiding citizen.
You know — you and me.
