Fears have been raised partly because of concerns that details for lawmakers remain largely a privilege for top congressional leaders — despite U.S. Capitol Police data showing that threats against members, their families, and staff more than doubled between 2017 and 2020.

In response to the shootings, the Senate is holding a classified briefing for all members on Tuesday morning at the urgent request of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to discuss security concerns amid growing fears from lawmakers that they could be at risk of similar political violence seen in Minnesota. 

Lawmakers will hear from Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Jennifer Hemingway, the chamber’s top cop, and the Capitol Police, according to Politico.  

“We have to reevaluate how we are protecting members of Congress and staff in the face of rising threats,” Schumer said Sunday. “To law enforcement and federal agencies: We must ensure that they have the tools to support, to track, to prevent threats before they turn into tragedy.” 

In response to requests from Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Capitol Police have increased security for both Minnesota senators, Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Tina Smith (D-MN), who were reportedly additional targets of the suspected assassin. The two Democratic congressional leaders have also urged Capitol Police to boost security measures for all members in the wake of the shootings. 

“I don’t want to think that I have to have a personal security detail everywhere I go, but I think we really have to look at the situation that we’re in,” Smith said Sunday on NBC News. “This is no way for our government to work when people, any number of us, feel this kind of threat.”

“The level of threat that lawmakers are exposed to is just unacceptable, and … we have to find a way of ratcheting down this intensity,” the Minnesota senator continued during a CNN interview that day. “We are at a tipping point right now, when we see these kinds of personal threats, it gets worse, not better.”

After the Senate holds the security briefing on Tuesday morning, Jeffries will host a Zoom conference addressing safety concerns in the afternoon, when House Administration Committee ranking member Joe Morelle (D-NY), Sergeant-at-Arms William McFarland, and Capitol Police will brief House Democrats, according to invites viewed by Axios. “Scared” lawmakers say there’s a “heavy demand” for all members to have their own security details. They want personal information, such as addresses commonly published on public systems, hidden, among other security updates.

House GOP leadership held its emergency call on Saturday afternoon in response to the Minnesota shootings. 

Concerned members urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to consider several proposals, including increasing security measures at members’ homes and boosting security for meetings. 

However, Johnson may not be too receptive to enacting sweeping changes, according to a GOP lawmaker who said that “nothing’s changed.” 

House lawmakers, such as Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), have pointed to the rise of political violence in recent years, including multiple assassination attempts against President Donald Trump, to argue that enhanced security measures are justified to protect politicians. 

Trump narrowly survived an assassin’s bullet in Pennsylvania last July, while another gunman attempted to assassinate him on a Florida golf course. An Iranian plot to take his life was also uncovered in 2024. Other acts of political violence in recent years include an arson attack on Gov. Josh Shapiro’s (D-PA) residence, the killings of two Israeli Embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., an armed man who was arrested near Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s home and charged with his attempted murder, and a gunman in 2022 who killed a retired Wisconsin judge and was found carrying a list of additional targeted elected officials, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) and Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY).

Saturday’s shooting in Minnesota also took place exactly eight years after a gunman severely injured several people, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), during a Republican congressional baseball practice in Virginia. Scalise nearly died due to his wounds. 

Lawler, who has young children, told Politico that he beefed up his security in the past year because “people have lost all sense of responsibleness and civility.”

The “volatility” in political discourse has “gotten so hot that people have lost perspective,” resulting in people “making decisions that result in bodily harm of elected officials and the general public,” the New York congressman worried. 

“I think both parties have to recognize that some of the rhetoric really results in grave consequences,” the New York representative added, referencing the attempts on Trump’s life in July and September. “And how things are described, how people talk about actions being taken by the government, just all of it is destructive towards the public discourse, and frankly, put people’s lives in jeopardy. And I hope people wake up to it, because it really is destructive.”

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) threatened in comments to Axios that if Johnson doesn’t swiftly address concerns, he will force a House vote on holding a “secret session” so members can have sensitive security discussions. 

“We’re just as exposed as [Hortman] was. We have no more security than she does. You know, Capitol Police is not equipped … for 435 members, to keep them safe,” he said.

“It’s not their fault,” the Florida lawmaker added. “Things have changed. And as Congress becomes less functional in general, we can’t even function to keep ourselves safe.”

The outbreaks of political violence against Minnesota state lawmakers have also spurred calls to give more local and state officials enhanced protections. 

Nationally, 43% of state lawmakers faced threats during their most recent term in office and the preceding campaign, according to a 2024 survey published by the Brennan Center for Justice.

MINNESOTA SHOOTING SUSPECT ARRESTED AFTER TWO-DAY MANHUNT

“There’s been a loud noise, particularly on social media, about the acceptability of assassinations based on policies — that’s a real problem,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said over the weekend as he addressed ramping up security for local politicians in the Big Apple. 

“If an elected official believes that their life is in danger, this is a large number of protocols and steps that we take to make sure our local electeds are safe,” the mayor continued.