(ABC 6 News) — A public forum was held at First Presbyterian Church in Rochester on Tuesday night to discuss the prevention of gun violence.

The community came together to learn more about what is being done locally and statewide to end gun violence.

The event stems from a collaboration between the Olmsted County sheriff’s Office, Rochester Public Schools and the non-profit Protect Minnesota, and those groups say communication is the key if something does go wrong.

“The whole piece is our threat assessment. When something comes up, we don’t want to be in silos we want to work together, share information that we have and try to make things best for us. Then we share things that we have,” Chris Lingen, Director of School Support for Rochester Public Schools, said.

Nearly 600 Minnesotans die as a result of gun violence every year and the majority of those deaths come from self inflicted gun shot wounds.

“Every single one of those deaths is preventable, and if we as community members in our families in our communities with our policy makers, we will be literally saving lives right here in Rochester, in Olmsted County and all around the state,” Maggiy Emery, Executive director of Protect Minnesota, said.

Emery said keeping guns safely stored can be one of the most important things to help prevent people who ma be going through a mental health crisis from having access to a firearm.

The State of Minnesota offers free gun locks to prevent accidental deaths, thefts and suicides. Since August of 2022, 50,000 of these locks have been given away by the state.