Rep. Hudson Issues Statement on Passage of STOP School Violence Act

WASHINGTON, March 14 -- Rep. Richard Hudson, R-North Carolina, issued the following statement after the House passed the Student, Teachers and Officers Preventing School Violence Act (H.R. 4909):

"Today is exactly one month after the tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, and my wife Renee and I continue to pray for the Parkland community.

"The despicable violence and hatred we saw there has no place in our schools. That's why so many of us have been working for years to address the horror of mass shootings.

"I helped lead efforts in Congress to get the most transformational mental health reform in 50 years signed into law, which updated laws and continues to provide resources to expand access to mental health care.

"Today's legislation builds on that work and is a multi-layered approach focused on intervention and prevention.

"It will help give students, teachers, and law enforcement the tools and training they need to identify and report warning signs so that we can stop violence in its tracks."

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The Student, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Act of 2018 is a bipartisan bill that creates a grant program to train students, teachers, school officials, and local law enforcement how to identify and intervene early when signs of violence arise, creates a coordinated reporting system, and implements school threat assessment protocols to prevent school shootings before they happen.

This action builds off of Congress's ongoing efforts to address school violence. Specifically, in the 21st Century Cures Act which was signed into law in December 2016, Congress permanently authorized the VALOR initiative at the Department of Justice, which trains law enforcement on appropriate actions to take in an active shooter scenario.

The law also improved the National Violent Death Reporting System at the CDC to help track violent deaths and illuminate ways they can be prevented. Other aspects were aimed at preventing an individual from reaching a point of crisis including:

Allowing more compassionate communication under HIPAA so family members can help individuals going through severe mental illness and facilitate treatment.

Providing increased grant funding for training so teachers, EMS and other professionals can appropriately intervene before someone with mental illness experiences a crisis.

Reauthorizing programs that focus on helping treat children early on with severe emotional disturbances.

In addition, last December, the House passed legislation to enforce existing law, improve compliance with the federal background check system, address the bump stock issue, as well as strengthen the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens. This was Rep. Hudson's bill, H.R. 38, which included concealed carry reciprocity and contained provisions to help address the mass shootings in Las Vegas and Texas by:

* Requiring agencies to report federally prohibited individuals to the NICS system.

* Asking critical questions about bump stocks.