'Those bullets don't care about politics, income, race or religion'
Vivian St. Clair is 9 years old and was shot twice in the back and once in the arm during the Annunciation School Shooting in Minneapolis. Her mother Malia Kimbrell spoke eloquently for change.
Vivian survived, but as Malia Kimbrell emotionally recounts, two children didn’t —Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10.
‘I got to take my child home after this horrific massacre. But the Moyskis didn’t, and the Merkels didn’t. We all dropped our kids off that morning, but we didn’t all get to take our kids home.’
It’s been a disheartening few weeks thinking about gun control in the United States. One of the loudest advocates for the Second Amendment lost his life to an assassin’s bullet, one that was fired too powerfully and too accurately and from too long a range, but the political wildfire that’s followed is all to do with regime sanctioned levels of grief, and nothing to do with the root cause of these gun deaths.
If the needle couldn’t be moved by Sandy Hook, can it be moved by anything? I read the comments under Malia’s beautiful speech, and the top commenters are all ‘If it wouldn't have been a gun it would've been a car or a bomb or a knife. Bad people do bad things’ blah blah and other such bullshit.
It’s boring to keep making the correlation between legal, high powered guns provided to anyone regardless of background checks and gun deaths. Michael Moore did it in Bowling for Columbine 22 years ago. The March for Our Lives kids did it brilliantly. In Australia, we lived through a handful of mass shootings in the 80s and 90s. Then a conservative Prime Minister banned the semi automatic guns and they stopped.
FYI we still have bad people.
Malia hits every note here:
To our lawmakers and people in power:
Who will do something?
Who will make meaningful change?
This moment will define your character.
Are you courageous or are you a coward?Don’t tell us—show us.
We need:
Improved mental health support in schools and communities
Better background checks and risk identification
An immediate ban on semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines
If you oppose this, come to my living room.
Hold Vivian’s hand during her dressing changes.
Look her in the eye and tell her why her safety is less important than a weapon.
Many thanks to subscriber Brady Taylor for spotting this excellent speech, and sharing it with Speakola. I’ll post the full transcript below. If you have a video embed or a transcript of a speech that you think would belong on Speakola (here is the library), send it through to me. Don’t be too scared by a quality threshold. If the words are delivered with love, humour, passion, thoughtfulness, imagination or integrity — they’re good enough for me.
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Cheers
Tony Wilson, Curator, Speakola
Malia Kimbrell: 'Those bullets didn’t care about politics, income, race, or religion', Speech following Minneapolis school shooting - 2025
4 September 2025, Minneapolis, USA
Every Annunciation child and teacher has a unique account of the horrific things they witnessed and experienced in that church. Every parent who felt the panic and lived the unimaginable nightmare that morning. Every alumni and parishioner, every community member, every Minneapolis resident. The trauma is palpable, and we are not okay. We all have a story—and this is mine.
My daughter's name is Vivian St. Clair. She is a third grader at Annunciation who just turned 9 years old. She was shot twice in the back and once in the arm while she sat in church last week. After several minutes of chaos and hiding under the pew, she followed her teacher to safety at the school. It was there that her friend said to her, "Vivy, are you okay? You have a hole in your back."
After being hospitalized at HCMC, I got to take her home.
I got to take my child home after this horrific massacre. But the Moises didn’t, and the Merkels didn’t. We all dropped our kids off that morning, but we didn’t all get to take our kids home. And that level of heartbreak is unfathomable.
No parent should ever experience that pain. And I will tell you, those two especially do not deserve that pain.
When something terrible and tragic happens, you're supposed to look for the helpers—the good people. There was evil that day. Unimaginable evil. But I want to acknowledge that there were also countless examples of selfless people doing extraordinary things:
The group of dads who were at mass
Our priest, deacon, and principal who ran toward the gunfire
The heroic teachers who sheltered our kids under pews
The older kids laying on their younger buddies
The first responders—sheriffs, police, firefighters, EMS crews
The entire medical teams at HCMC and Children’s
The police officer who got Vivian into the ambulance and rode with her
The nurse who went into the CT scan with Vivian and held her hand until I could get there
That is the embodiment of the saying, "There is no such thing as other people’s children."
To the neighbors, friends, family, co-workers, and strangers who have shown love and support—we are forever grateful.
But I want to warn you:
If you think this won’t happen to your kids, your neighbours, your nieces and nephews, your grandkids—think again.
Those bullets didn’t care about politics, income, race, or religion.
Without action, we will be here again.
Annunciation will be the community sending flowers to the next school.
We will write on the card: “We get it. Love, Annunciation.”
Vivian, Lydia, Victor, and all the others will be on CNN 15 years from now recounting their trauma—just like the Sandy Hook kids.
If you have one shred of decency, one ounce of compassion, one moment of clarity—you will do something.
You will be part of the change.
You will pray, and you will move your feet.
You will take action.
Thoughts didn’t stop the bullets.
Prayers didn’t stop the bullets.
Action is our only hope.
To our lawmakers and people in power:
Who will do something?
Who will make meaningful change?
This moment will define your character.
Are you courageous or are you a coward?
Don’t tell us—show us.
We need:
Improved mental health support in schools and communities
Better background checks and risk identification
An immediate ban on semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines
If you oppose this, come to my living room.
Hold Vivian’s hand during her dressing changes.
Look her in the eye and tell her why her safety is less important than a weapon.
Please pray for Sophia’s recovery.
Keep Fletcher and Harper’s memory alive—not just now, but always.
Now more than ever, we need a future filled with hope.
Thank you.
My personal Substack is Good one, Wilson. The latest piece is about going to see a favourite band, The Cat Empire. And some slightly dodgy behaviour involving a fake ID.
Or you can reply to this email with the words, ‘Good one’ and I’ll sign you up.
