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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
The Daily Signal
White House Releases
New Details on School Safety Agenda
Fred Lucas
March 12, 2018
President Donald Trump will push states to make it easier to seize
weapons from people a court finds dangerous, hold federal agencies more
accountable for background checks, and promote arming teachers.
The White House’s formal release of a school safety agenda is an early
step, as the president is also naming a commission to come up with more
recommendations.
“The president’s plan focuses on the following areas. First, hardening
our schools,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told
reporters Monday before the formal release. “We will ensure our schools
are safe and secure—just like our airports, stadiums, and government
buildings—with better training and preparedness.”
Sanders continued:
Second, strengthening background checks and prevention. President Trump
is supporting legislation and reforms to strengthen the background
checks system and law enforcement operations.
Third, reforming mental health programs. The president is proposing an
expansion and reform of mental health programs, including those that
help identify and treat individuals who may be a threat to themselves
or others.
The administration seeks to take action after the Feb. 14 high school
shooting in Parkland, Florida, where a gunman with an AR-15-style rifle
killed 17 people.
In a tweet earlier Monday, Trump backed away from the idea of
increasing the age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21. Sanders said the
president hasn’t abandoned the proposal, but said there is little
support for it on Capitol Hill.
“Right now the president’s primary focus is on pushing through things
that we know have broad bipartisan support or things that we can do
from an administrative perspective, that we can do immediately, but we
haven’t let go of some of those other things that we are going to
continue to review.”
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will be the chairwoman of the
commission, and the White House announced over the weekend plans to
make schools more secure, strengthen background checks, and reform
mental health programs.
DeVos did a round of interviews with morning TV news shows and asserted
that “everything is on the table.” But details for the panel have yet
to be worked out.
“The secretary will unveil a robust plan regarding the commission’s
membership, scope of work, and timeline in the coming days,” Education
Department press secretary Elizabeth Hill told The Daily Signal in a
statement. “She is humbled by opportunity to lead this commission and
is committed to finding commonsense solutions that will keep our
nation’s children safe at school.”
The Justice Department has already embarked on banning bump stocks—or
devices that can be attached to rifles to make them fire rounds faster.
And on Monday, the Department of Homeland Security also announced it
would provide federal grants and training for school districts to work
with local first responders to secure school buildings and identify
potential problems.
“No child should have to worry about their safety when in school,”
Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement Monday.
“While state and local partners have primary responsibility for the
physical security at schools, through trainings, best practices guides,
workshops, and tabletop exercises, we hope to improve awareness and
foster a culture of preparedness,” Nielsen continued. “We are working
with partners around the country to harden these vulnerable targets.”
Under the Trump administration’s plan, the Justice Department will
assist school districts to work with local law enforcement to train
school personnel in firearms. The administration will also encourage
state attorneys general to audit school district compliance with
emergency preparedness.
The Justice Department is also asking states to adopt “extreme risk
protection orders,” which would allow law enforcement, with approval
from a court, to remove firearms from individuals who are a
demonstrated threat and temporarily prevent individuals from purchasing
new firearms
Trump is backing a bipartisan Senate bill by Senate Majority Whip John
Cornyn, R-Texas, and Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., to strengthen the
National Instant Criminal Background Check System, or NICS. The bill
holds federal agencies more accountable for reporting information to
NICS and provides financial incentivizes for states to improve their
reporting to the system.
On the mental health front, Trump is calling for a review of the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act and the Health Insurance Portability
and Accountability Act to determine if any changes or clarifications
are needed to improve coordination between mental health and other
health care professionals, school officials, and law enforcement
personnel.
Read this and other articles at The Daily Signal
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