Students and adults protested over school shootings, which haven’t been prevented by the Gun-Free School Zones Act, and some Republican congressmen are sponsoring legislation to repeal the ineffective law. (YouTube, KING)
Legislation that would repeal the Gun-Free School Zones Act, which was sponsored by then-Sen. Joe Biden and former Sen. Herb Kohl (D-WI), has been introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Thomas Massie (R-KY), and even though it is not likely to advance, it’s a signal that something needs to change.
With Biden now running for the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2020, the issue could come up, since its failure to prevent a single school shooting is well-established.
“Gun-free zones are ineffective and make our schools less safe,” Massie said in a news release. “Ninety-eight percent of mass public shootings since 1950 have occurred in places where citizens are banned from having guns. Banks, churches, sports stadiums, and many of my colleagues in Congress are protected with firearms. Yet children inside the classroom are too frequently left vulnerable.”
According to Guns.com, the Gun-Free School Zones Act was part of the 1990 Crime Control Act.
Massie has several co-sponsors, including Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC). He concurred with Massie that the 29-year-old gun control measure has been ineffective in protecting students and staff from school shooters.
“The only thing gun-free zones do is disarm law-abiding citizens and take away their ability to protect themselves and others,” Duncan observed. “We shouldn’t leave our most vulnerable – our children – in an unsafe environment like gun-free zones where acts of violence cannot be stopped.”
Other sponsors are Representatives Justin Amash (R-MI), Jody Hice (R-GA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Louie Gohmert (R-TX), James Comer (R-KY), and Brian Babin (R-TX).
Not a single Democrat has signed on.
Massie’s H.R. 3200 is essentially a resurrection of a bill originally introduced by former Texas Congressman Ron Paul in 2007, according to the press release.
Since passage of the Gun-Free Zones Act, the nation has been shaken repeatedly by shootings at public schools including Pearl High School in Mississippi, Columbine High School in Colorado, Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut plus, Washington State’s Marysville Pilchuck High School, Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas and several other incidents.
Biden has liked to brag about sponsoring the anti-gun-rights “assault weapons ban” contained in the 1994 Clinton crime bill. He survived the political purge of Congress that year that resulted from passage of that legislation. More than 50 Democrats lost their jobs, replaced by Republicans who held Congress through the remainder of the Clinton administration.
According to Massie’s news release, in 1995 the Supreme Court ruled the original Gun-Free zones act unconstitutional, leading Congress to amend the law the following year.
