I’d
like to talk about preventing acts of mass violence. Just earlier today, the
shooter at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School tragedy in Parkland,
Florida, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of first degree murder. There, 14
students and three school staff senselessly lost their lives in just a few
minutes when a former student, struggling with clear behavior problems and
mental health issues, indiscriminately opened fire. I hope that his guilty plea
brings at least some small sense of closure and justice to the victims’
families.
While
there’s nothing we can do to take back the terrible events of that day, we need
to do what we can to make sure such horrific acts don’t ever happen again.
That’s why earlier this year, along with Senators Cortez Masto, Collins,
Manchin, Hassan, Rubio and Scott of Florida, I introduced the EAGLES Act. The EAGLES Act will help fund and reauthorize the U.S. Secret Service’s
National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC). An identical bill was introduced in
the House by Representatives Deutch and Diaz-Balart. The NTAC studies targeted
violence and helps proactively identify and manage threats before they result
in more tragedies.
The
EAGLES Act also establishes a Safe
School Initiative, a national program on school violence prevention that will
include expanded research on school violence.
When
the Secret Service reviewed school shootings, it found that all attackers
exhibited concerning behaviors prior to engaging in acts of violence. If these
signs were recognized early enough, these attacks could have been stopped.
The
father of one of the Parkland victims and the president of “Stand with Parkland”
said that the NTAC has been “essential to thwarting mass shooters and targeted
violence.” He also said that “the EAGLES
Act is a critical expansion of the program that prioritizes school safety
and directs key funding to prevent the next mass school shooting.”
The
EAGLES Act is a commonsense bill to
further fund and reauthorize the Secret Service’s NTAC that’s supported by over
40 state attorneys general and representatives from both sides of the aisle.
It’s a bill that hopefully honors the lives and memories of the Parkland
victims by ensuring that such tragedies don’t happen again.
I
ask and encourage all of my Senate colleagues to support this bill.
