Issue Position: Gun Safety

Issue Position

Congress must do its job and work to reduce gun violence in this country. At the outset, I must tell you that I am a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. However, advocating for the Second Amendment does not mean standing idly by and waiting for the next gun-related incident. Frankly, I find it repulsive and infuriating to see Congress stalling on implementing solutions to address this epidemic.

The first step is to implement universal background checks for firearm sales and eliminate the private sale exemption. As an advocate for the Second Amendment, I am for responsible and legal gun ownership. As such, we must ensure that all those who purchase a firearm have passed a comprehensive background check and are legally qualified for gun ownership in this country. Nearly one year ago, on February 27, 2019, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed HR8--the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2019. Sadly, although the Act has Bipartisan support, current TX-8 Representative, Kevin Brady, voted against universal background checks. The Senate now must step up and pass it to be signed into law. While I would hope that Senator Cornyn would vote in favor of it, I'm not counting on that. Of course, as long as Mitch McConnell and the Republicans control the Senate, it will likely not even get to a vote. We must take back the Senate in November, and get a 60 Senate majority in order to defeat Republican filibusters. This will allow us to finally see real solutions to gun violence passed into law, including the universal background checks already passed by the House, as well as legislation reinstating the assault weapons ban, which has already been demonstrated to significantly reduce gun deaths, and legislation that allows for liability against the gun manufacturers.

I also believe that gun violence can be significantly reduced by increased detection and treatment of emotional disorders. In other words, we must tackle this problem at its core. To do so, I will push for federal assistance for research into the underlying cause of these incidents and to increase the number of teachers and counselors in our public schools. By lowering the student to teacher ratio in our schools, we can obtain closer teacher-student contact (and teacher-parent contact), which will help immensely to detect emotional issues that students may be struggling and get them the counseling that they need. Moreover, by increasing the number of counselors, we can ensure that each student is seen regularly by a trained professional. This will help to guide students in their growth and development, better preparing our students for the future. And it will also help detect any emotional health issues in students that may otherwise go undetected and untreated in our students. We must prioritize the funding to address this issue by formally declaring gun violence to be a public health emergency.

In addition to helping our school-age children, we must also help our adults, as well. First, we must make it easier for working adults to take time to receive counseling. To do that, I will propose an amendment to the Family and Medical Leave Act that will expand the number of employers covered as well as the leave requirements for employees seeking time off for mental health treatment.

I will also look to amend the Mental Health Parity Act in order to close loopholes that too many insurers are using to deny coverage for mental health treatment. Similarly, I will pursue Federal legislation establishing minimum levels of coverage for mental health treatment. Most insurance plans are woefully inadequate regarding coverage for mental health treatment, resulting in significant out of pocket expenses, and causing many people to go untreated.

Source