Active Shooter Alert Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. BIGGS. Madam Speaker, I oppose H.R. 6538. Frankly, this bill is unnecessary. Nothing prevents the States today from creating an alert system for active shooter incidents. Every State has the capacity to implement a warning system if they choose to.

In fact, in 2020, the GAO said there are more than 1,400 systems already in place throughout the country that make this available. We passed here, just 4 or 5 years ago, the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act. That cleared up a lot of holes throughout the country on these emergency alert systems. This really is duplicative, and is, quite frankly, not necessary.

Contrary to the belief of many Members of this body, the solution to every issue is not a Federal program. We should allow States, who have the ability, to create systems for providing emergency notifications for their citizens in a manner that is best for them.

What this does is by putting a Federal coordinator over there, it actually lays in place the infrastructure for a soon-to-be-mandated system that the States will have to fund, but it will be mandated by the Federal Government. That is my prognostication here because that is what always happens.

DOJ can already issue best practices and guidance related to public safety alerts. So what is this? This is a bill designed to feel good. This is a visceral bill, an emotional bill. This is not a bill designed to make us safer, make Americans safer. We already have those mechanisms and means in place.

We have spent a lot of time going over bills introduced by my colleagues across the aisle regarding gun violence. Very few of them are going to provide any kind of help and assistance. There are bills that we have introduced that will not get a hearing that I believe will actually provide help and safety for the American people.

This bill, however, by creating this Federal alert system--and it is not a Federal alert system, but it will evolve into that--is to remind us always that gun violence exists all around us, and it is to basically prejudice people against lawful gun owners.

One of the best things you can have, regardless of what my colleagues across the aisle say, is a trained good guy with a gun.

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