Langevin Statement on NRA School Safety Report

Statement

Congressman Jim Langevin (D-RI), a member of the House Gun Violence Prevention Task Force, issued the following statement in reaction to the National Rifle Association (NRA)-funded report on school safety, released today, that the NRA commissioned after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. One major recommendation was to train selected staff members at schools to carry weapons.

"Having nearly lost my own life to a gun in what should have been the safest environment, a police locker room with weapons experts, I find it appalling that a report's recommendations on school safety would center on having more guns around our children. While I support schools' ability to have trained resource officers on site, we also have a moral obligation to do everything we can to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the dangerously mentally ill. This report does not make any constructive suggestions toward this goal and the NRA offers no attempt to address violence that occurs in other locations.

"With more than 90 percent of the public supporting the commonsense step of universal background checks and an unacceptably large number of sales occurring without one, any effective gun safety plan would start with that step. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the NRA is not interested in a constructive conversation about keeping our schools and communities safe from gun violence, but instead only wants to serve the interests of the gun industry, which are not representative of the vast majority of the American people."

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