Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced that he has blocked the Luke and Alex School Safety Act before recessing Senate to enjoy the long holiday weekend.
Schumer, a Democrat from New York, used his over-inflated powers to quash a proposed school safety bill.
The bill that was introduced by Senator Ron Johnson was named after Luke Hoyer and Alex Schachter, two students killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School attack on February 14, 2018, in Parkland, Florida. The bill would have charged the Department of Homeland Security with establishing standards for best practices in the area of school safety, and to “collect clearinghouse data analytics, user feedback on the implementation of best practices and recommendations identified by the clearinghouse, and any evaluations conducted on these best practices and recommendations.”
According to Fox News, “after the horrific mass shooting at a Uvalde, Tex., elementary school that killed 19 children and two teachers, Johnson asked for the Luke and Alex School Safety Act to be passed by unanimous consent.”
That bill would require the domestic terrorism components of the DHS, the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to jointly report on domestic terrorism, as well as create “an interagency task force to analyze and combat white supremacist and neo-Nazi infiltration of the uniformed services and federal law enforcement agencies.”
However, that was not what the bill said. At all. In fact, in the 12 pages that were released the word gun isn’t even mentioned.
Did Schumer even bother reading the bill?
Max Schachter, whose 14-year-old son was killed during the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, said, “How does a website put guns in schools? It’s ridiculous. It has nothing to do with guns. It’s just a website of best practices. It doesn’t mandate anything.”
“I thought that after 19 children and two teachers were just murdered in Uvalde, Texas, partisan politics will be put aside and that families might at least have some positive news out of Congress from their elected leaders,” he said. “I was naive to think that a horrible mass shooting would make people do the right thing. And unfortunately, you know, he didn’t. He blocked it.”
“Hardening schools would have done nothing to prevent this shooting. In fact, there were guards and police officers already at the school yesterday when the shooter showed up.” Schumer said Wednesday. “The shooter got past all of them.”
This is a blatantly false statement.
Salvador Ramos, the Robb Elementary School shooter, did not encounter any sort of police or resource officer before entering the unlocked school.
The bill would codify the Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety into law. The clearinghouse is currently available at SchoolSafety.gov and provides parents and educators information and recommendations on best practices to “prevent, protect, mitigate, respond to, and recover from a range of school safety threats, hazards, and emergency situations.”
The website is maintained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in partnership with the Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services.
“There’s nothing partisan about this bill whatsoever. It’s just a good idea that could save lives,” Johnson said in remarks after reintroducing the bill. “It was such a good idea, that under the previous administration, they set up that clearinghouse. It’s up and it’s operating. So all this bill does at this point is serve as a model for what’s happening. All this bill does now is codify it to make sure this clearinghouse stands the test of time – that it will always be there to provide the best practices on school safety.”
What reason would Schumer have for refusing a bill that would give resources to schools to protect our children?
