Reforms needed to improve school safety

Something that has been lacking in the current national debate on firearms is trust and good faith.

Responsible gun owners mourn the innocent victims of mass shootings. Responsible gun owners want to keep our communities safe. Parents on both sides of this debate worry about our children’s safety.

All of us agree that mentally unstable or dangerous individuals should not have access to firearms. We must ensure that laws are effectively enforced – especially considering that there were clear signs that the Parkland, Florida shooter had mental health issues yet fell through the cracks.

In January, someone close to the shooter reported concerns about him to the FBI’s tip line. The FBI was provided with information about the shooter’s gun ownership, his desire to kill people, his erratic behavior, his disturbing social media posts, and the potential that he would conduct a school shooting.

The FBI admitted that protocols were not followed. Additionally, local law enforcement in Broward County in Florida responded 39 times to emergency calls at the shooter’s home over a seven-year period. This is a case where national and local law enforcement had the information necessary to intervene based on the shooter’s threats and tragically did not. There was a failure to enforce laws that are already in place to protect the public.

Since the shooting, the national debate has largely split on cultural lines. It seems as though the perspective of rural America has practically been ignored.

We want to defend against and deter attacks on all children. The purpose of the Second Amendment is for individuals to possess the means to protect ourselves, our loved ones, and our communities. Infringing on the constitutional rights of law-abiding Americans simply will not make anyone safer.

Many of us have grown up responsibly using firearms to defend ourselves, to hunt, or for sport. In rural communities like many in Central Washington, the response time of law enforcement from the nearest town may make the difference between staying safe and becoming a victim of crime. We exercise our Second Amendment rights responsibly because they allow us to defend innocent life. For us Second Amendment supporters, this right is as equally fundamental as the rights of free speech, free exercise of religion, and due process.

I support needed improvements to secure schools better and make them safer while safeguarding the Second Amendment.

I cosponsored H.R. 4811, Securing Our Schools Act, to improve communication between schools and law enforcement in the case of a medical emergency, active shooter incident, or natural disaster. I cosponsored H.R. 4909, the Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act. STOP would create a grant program to train students, teachers, school officials, and local law enforcement how to identify and intervene early when signs of violence arise, create a coordinated reporting system, and implement FBI and Secret Service-based school threat assessment protocols to prevent school shootings before they happen.

We can come together to make our schools and communities safer. We can achieve this goal without taking away fundamental rights from law-abiding Americans. We can make schools safer by enforcing the law while safeguarding our rights.