United States – -(AmmoLand.com)- There are many ways legislation can affect our Second Amendment rights. Some of the effects are very direct – bans on modern multi-purpose semi-automatic firearms being one of the most prominent proposals out there. But others will not directly touch on gun laws at all.
One of the latter bills is HR 3665, the School Violence Prevention and Mitigation Act of 2019, introduced by Representative Roger Williams (R-TX). This bill doesn’t change gun laws one way or another, but Second Amendment supporters should not just follow the progress of this bill but support its passage, even though the lead co-sponsor has a poor track record on Second Amendment rights.
According to a release by Representative Williams’s office, the legislation provides grants for schools to conduct safety assessments and to address vulnerabilities found by those assessments. In addition, the legislation also requires the installation of a silent “panic alarm” that would alert the closest law enforcement agency to the school when activated.
“The time has come to provide schools with the funds and resources necessary to conduct vulnerability assessments and correct security shortfalls on their campuses. Texas leads the country in conducting safety assessments, and the federal government must take the initiative to provide grants, where eligible to ensure that a security weakness is properly addressed,” Williams said in the release.
The legislation hardly mentions firearms and makes no changes to current gun laws. However, the improvements in school security will indirectly help efforts to protect our Second Amendment rights. Why? Because improved security for schools lessens the likelihood of school shootings and also makes them less likely to have high casualty counts.
The fact of the matter is that in the immediate aftermath of a school shooting, particularly one that is a mass shooting with a high casualty count, there is a huge push by the media and anti-Second Amendment extremists for legislation to infringe on Second Amendment rights. Just take a look at history.
In the wake of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, a number of states passed onerous bans on modern multi-purpose semi-automatic firearms. A reinstated federal ban didn’t happen because of a Senate filibuster led by Senator Ted Cruz.
After the Parkland shooting, Andrew Cuomo began his abusive campaign against the National Rifle Association. That legal battle continues, with the NRA recently filing an amended complaint against the state of New York-based on new evidence. That shooting also saw an avalanche of corporate gun control.
The school shootings that don’t happen will never be used to attack our rights. Therefore, even though this legislation doesn’t directly change any gun laws, its passage will help protect the Second Amendment. Second Amendment supporters should contact their Representative and Senators and urge them to support passage of HR 3665, the School Violence Prevention and Mitigation Act of 2019.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
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