ST. PAUL  — Opponents of gun violence encouraged state lawmakers on Thursday to take action in the aftermath of the Florida school shooting that killed 17 students and teachers last week.

Protect Minnesota scheduled a rally Thursday afternoon as it sought support for a pair of bills from Democratic lawmakers related to guns and public health.

“It’s time to treat gun violence like the public health crisis that it is, by enacting laws that permit research and go upstream to prevent gun violence — instead of responding after tragedies occur and lives have been lost,” Protect Minnesota Director Nancy Nord Bence said in a statement.

The bills include a measure allowing the state health department to collect information on gun ownership for public health research in a way that supporters say wouldn’t reveal identifiable information.

Sen. Matt Klein, a Democrat from Mendota Heights, said expanded data would allow public health professionals to study things like where gun violence and other factors like mental health intersect.

“I think this is something gun owners can get behind,” Klein said. “You’ve got to find who the problem is and not blame all gun owners.”

Another bill would direct $100,000 toward a pilot program aimed at reducing the trauma of gun violence, including support for people affected by suicides and homicides.

But any new gun restrictions face difficult odds in the GOP-controlled Legislature.

In 2013, after the Newtown shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead in Connecticut, new gun restrictions foundered in the then-Democratic controlled Legislature, as proposals to expand background checks and ban assault rifles divided rural and urban Democrats.

‘I think we’ll certainly talk about it,” said House Speaker Kurt Daudt, a Republican from Crown. “I know it feels good and it feels easy to just say we’re going to ban these weapons.”