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WILKES-BARRE — Pennsylvania’s two U.S. senators Wednesday vigorously joined the national debate over school safety and gun reform.
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, said despite the recent mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida and the outpouring of support from Americans for common-sense gun reform, the Trump Administration’s budget would slash funds for safety and security measures in schools and congressional leadership has yet to schedule a debate on gun reform.
“Victims and their families shouldn’t have to wait around while Congress does nothing, yet again,” Casey said during a teleconference with the media Wednesday morning. “The students of Stoneman Douglas High School shouldn’t have to wait. Activists have started a movement that should force every single member of Congress to listen with an open mind and take action so this senseless gun violence doesn’t take another life.”
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Lehigh Valley, and a bipartisan group of House and Senate members met Wednesday with President Donald Trump regarding a potential path forward on gun safety legislation.
”All too often, when it comes to guns, Republicans and Democrats talk past one another instead of working to try to find common ground,” Toomey said during a teleconference. “I think we can make progress on gun safety while still fully respecting the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.”
Toomey said his “guiding principle is that we ought to do what we can to keep guns out of the hands of people who have no legal right to them.”
Toomey went on to say, “Terrorists, the dangerously mentally ill, and violent criminals have no Second Amendment rights and it is reasonable to make it as difficult as possible for them to obtain firearms.”
Casey, who is running for a third six-year term in the Senate, offered other “common-sense proposals.” He said he co-sponsored a bill to require universal background checks, which he claimed are supported by an overwhelming majority of Americans. He also co-sponsored a bill to re-institute the Assault Weapons Ban and introduced the Disarm Hate Act, which prevents individuals convicted of violent misdemeanor hate crimes from getting their hands on a gun.
Toomey said the current background check system is not adequate — there are shortcomings and loopholes that allow people who shouldn’t have access to guns to nevertheless buy them and avoid a background check.
Toomey referred to his co-sponsorship of a background check bill he co-authored with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, that failed in 2013 following the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut. Toomey said the legislation would require background checks for all commercial sales — such as sales at gun shows or over the Internet that are not currently subject to background checks.
Toomey and Casey agreed on a “no fly, no buy” policy that would deny gun sales to those deemed too dangerous to board a plane.
Toomey also said there needs to be better enforcement of existing gun laws and responding to warning signs. He favors legislation that would require the FBI to share information with state law enforcement.
Casey, meanwhile, pointed to the administration’s Department of Education budget proposal for FY 2019 that calls for $425 million in cuts to school safety and mental health assistance programs.
In addition, Casey said the budget calls for a 36 percent cut to School Safety National Activities, reducing funding by $25 million. School Safety National Activities funding can be used to improve students’ safety and well-being both during and after the school day, Casey said.
Toomey said no bill would create a panacea to ending mass gun violence.
“ … While Manchin-Toomey does create a commission to study mass violence and the causes and the contributing factors, we do not have an off-the-shelf solution to this problem,” Toomey said. “It’s going to take a lot of work over an extended period of time to identify those people who are at risk, prone to, likely to committing these appalling mass murders.”