The mother of one of the victims of the shooting in Minneapolis that left two children dead and 18 others injured called for a ban on semi-automatic rifles and high-capacity magazines in a statement read at a Sept. 4 press conference.

Malia Kimbrell asked, "Who is going to make meaningful change and break the cycle?" in the wake of the Aug. 27 shooting at Annunciation Catholic School, a private elementary school.

Her nine-year-old daughter, Vivian St. Clair, was hospitalized in the pediatric intensive care unit of the Hennepin County Medical Center after being shot twice in the back and once in the arm, according to Kimbrell. Kimbrell works in the newborn intensive care unit at the same hospital.

She directly responded to the statement of "thoughts and prayers" commonly issued by politicians after mass shootings.

"Think the thoughts, pray the prayers, then do the things. Because we all know that thoughts don't stop the bullets, prayers don't stop the bullets," Kimbrell said. "To the lawmakers and people in power: Who the hell is going to do something?"

Kimbrell added that she supported improved measures on background checks and increased mental health support, saying of the latter, "Please fund the hell out of that."

However, she stated that she would settle for "nothing less" than the bans she called for.

"I will get the names of any lawmakers who stand in the way of that happening, and I will invite you to come to my living room and insist that you hold Vivian's hand while we do her dressing changes each night as she cries the entire time," Kimbrell said. "You can look her in the eye while you cleanse her bullet wounds, and you can tell her to her face why you are opposed to keeping her safe, why a semi-automatic rifle is more valuable than her life."

Authorities said Robin Westman used a rifle, a pistol and a handgun – all legally and recently purchased – to fire through the windows of the church from the outside of the building, USA TODAY previously reported.

Annunciation shooting parent promises community will 'pay it forward' when next shooting occurs

Kimbrell said that "the Annunciation community" received a bouquet of flowers and a card from Uvalde, Texas, where a shooter killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, and promised to "pay it forward" when the next school shooting occurs.

"We will write on the card: We get it. Love, Annunciation. Because that's what Uvalde did for us," Kimbrell said.

She noted that survivors of the shooting could be a part of the next generation of witnesses to speak on the horrors of a school shooting.

"They'll talk about the gruesome details of seeing their friend shot, the sound of shattering glass, the awful smell that permeated the room, and the feeling of a bullet piercing their flesh," she said.

Samantha Low, the nurse who comforted St. Clair while she received a CT scan following the shooting, said that focus should remain on the two children killed in the incident, Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, as well as the grieving community.

"No words can capture the depth of that loss, the loss of life, of safety, of security and of normalcy," Low said.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Minnesota shooting victim's mother calls for 'nothing less' than semi-auto rifle ban

Reporting by James Powel, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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