Reps. Tulsi Gabbard, Lucy McBath, Jahana Hayes Introduce Bill to Help Prevent School Shootings

Statement

Today, Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (HI-02), Lucy McBath (GA-06), and Jahana Hayes (CT-05) introduced H.R. 4301, the School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act. The bill will create a federal definition for "school shooting" and instructs the Departments of Education, in consultation with the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, to annually report uniform data on indicators of school crime as it pertains to school shootings.

"Classrooms should be a safe place where parents can have peace of mind that their children will be safe and free to learn. This legislation will help us to gather objective data to better understand how we can come together to prevent the tragedy of mass shootings occurring in our schools," said Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

"Any instance of gun violence in a school is unacceptable, and it is our duty to protect our nation's children and do all we can to stop school shootings," said Rep. Lucy McBath. "We can all work together to establish reporting requirements, be honest about this crisis, and stand up for future generations. Our bill will measure this horrible problem so that Americans can solve it together."

"This bill begins to address a serious problem born of inaction," said Rep. Jahana Hayes. "We can't manage a problem that we have not measured. It is critical that we gather as much information as possible to prevent future school shootings. I commend Reps. Gabbard and McBath for their efforts in this regard."

Background: H.R. 4301, the School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act would:

School Shooting Defined: Create a federal definition for "school shooting," establishing one standard definition in order to avoid subjective reporting of the circumstances surrounding these incidents.
School Crime and Safety Report: Require the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, to publish annual reports on indicators of school crime. The reports would cover:
Statistics on School Shooting: tracks the number of shootings, the number of people killed, demographics of shooters and victims, the motivation of shooters, types of firearms and ammunition used, how the firearm was acquired, and more.
Safety and Prevention: tracks information on the existence or absence of safety and prevention measures at the time of the shooting, such as building designs, communication and response plans, and more.

The School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act is supported by Everytown for Gun Safety.

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has been a strong advocate for common sense gun violence prevention policy -- including state grant funds for evidence-based school safety programs. She has supported bipartisan legislation to establish universal background checks, banning bump stocks and assault weapons as well as measures to prevent the 3D printing of guns.

These include the Gun Show Loophole Closing Act, the Public Safety and Second Amendment Rights Act, the Keeping Guns from High Risk Individuals Act, the Assault Weapons Ban, the Support Assault Firearms Elimination and Reduction for our Streets Act, the Domestic Violence Loophole Closure Act, the Automatic Gunfire Prevention Act, and more.

Source