As has been discussed on this blog here, we here at The Liberal Gun Club are pretty big fans of root cause mitigation and evidence based solutions. After Columbine, there was actually a large scale study done by the Secret Service on ways to prevent future school shootings, recently brought back to light here, by the Scientific American. Based on that event and study, along with follow up efforts after Sandy Hook, methodologies were refined and actual workable programs started to become available.
Sandy Hook Promise has been out in front on this issue for several years, and they, like we do here at the LGC, endorse HR 4909. Much like an article published on this very blog a short time ago, there are concrete steps recommended and training that can be done for schools through a grant program. That will make an actual difference.
According to SHP, this bill would:
- Through DOJ: Authorizes the Bureau of Justice Assistance to make grants to states for training and technical assistance to stop school violence, aimed at the entire youth ecosystem: local law enforcement, school resource officers, school personnel, parents/legal guardians, and students
- Provide grants to train everyone in the school ecosystem- school personnel, SROs, and students- to identify and intervene to stop dangerous, violent or unlawful activities
- Provide grants to improve coordination with local law enforcement to implement anonymous reporting systems for threats of school violence
- Provide grants for the development and operation of school threat assessment and intervention teams 4. Coordination with local law enforcement.
- Using Existing Funding: Authorizes $50 million dollars for grants, fully offset by directing existing funding from the NIJ Comprehensive School Safety Initiative (CSSI) research and pilot program into this legislation, shifting the CSSI program from pilot projects into the next phase of full school implementation.
So please. Call your congressional representatives. Tell them you are a constituent. Let them know that you support HR 4909. Use the script from Sandy Hook Promise, which can be found here.
Let’s do something- that works.