Letter urging House Speaker to act on gun violence sent hours prior … – Woodland Daily Democrat

Just hours prior to a mass shooting in Maine that killed 18, Congressman Mike Thompson, D-Yolo, delivered a letter he co-wrote with Nancy Pelosi and 90 members of the Gun Violence Prevention Task Force to new House Speaker Mike Johnson urging him to take action on gun violence prevention.

Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teenagers in America. Parents across our country now live with the reality that if their child dies, the most common reason for that death is not because of cancer or a car crash, but a bullet, the members wrote. As you assume the responsibility of Speaker of the House, we stand ready to work with you on legislation that will reduce gun violence and urge you to commit to putting gun violence prevention legislation on the floor as soon as possible.

The letter added that since former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was removed from his leadership role on Oct. 3, 1,030 people have died from gun violence including 15 children and 60 teenagers, another 2,069 people were injured and 33 mass shootings occurred.

Although we can never get back the time that was wasted by the chaos caused by the lack of leadership in the House of Representatives, we must not let that dysfunction prevent us from working together to address the gun violence crisis moving forward, the letter stressed. We suggest that the House first start by considering the numerous gun violence prevention bills that are supported by a majority of Democrats, Independents and Republicans.

According to the Associated Press, Johnson said prayer was a proper response from the House for the Wednesday mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine.

Were really, really hopeful and prayerful, Johnson said. Prayer is appropriate at a time like this, that the evil can end and the senseless violence can stop.

Johnson then declined to take questions including those regarding gun violence legislation.

The suspect, Robert Card, is still at large and residents in Lewiston are being encouraged to shelter in place, according to the Associated Press.

According to data provided by the Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University, there have been 569 mass killings since 2006, with 37 so far in 2023 as of the time of publishing.

The database defines mass killings as an attack in which four or more people have died, not including the perpetrator, within a 24-hour period, which is consistent with how the FBI defines mass killings.

Cards family told NBC News that his mental health had deteriorated rapidly and that they had contacted his Army Reserve unit and police after he began hearing voices.

Following a rampage four years ago, Maine passed a law aimed at preventing mass shootings referred to as a yellow flag law instead of the red flag laws that have proven effective in other states, including California, according to the Associated Press.

A gun-rights group helped write the law to show that the state still had a pro-Second Amendment mindset. However, it is uncertain if the yellow flag law was used in Cards case, but many are blaming the killings on the states weak gun laws.

Red flag laws, which in California are called extreme risk protection orders, capitalize on what social epidemiologist Veronica Pear calls leakage, referring to when a shooter has a plan to perpetrate a mass shooting and tells someone else about it.

So theyre making the plan before it happens, she remarked in a June 2023 interview concerning red flag laws. The role of red flag laws is to capitalize on this phenomenon of leakage by basically providing an opportunity for those people who are made aware of the plans to either petition themselves, if they are permitted, or to law enforcement who can then petition a judge to ask for the civil order that would temporarily remove firearms from the high-risk person for either three weeks to up to five years in California.

However, Pear warned against the argument that mental health is the only cause of gun violence because it misses the point of what her research shows could save lives, which is that mental illness is not a leading cause of violence.

Its much more likely to be related to self-harm and people who have mental illnesses are more likely to be harmed by others than to harm others, so it is definitely just a red herring, she argued.

Pear is an assistant professor at the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program and argued that people want a solution that doesnt involve major change and pinning it on a stigmatized and vulnerable group can be an easy way out.

In one of her studies, Pear and her colleagues examined gun violence restraining orders in California between 2016 and 2018 by analyzing case details and respondent mortality.

The data showed that mental illness was a less severe risk factor than substance use or a sudden life-altering event such as the loss of a loved one or the end of a relationship.

Its not helpful conversation to just focus on mental illness because what we found was a majority, 80%, didnt have mental illness, she said regarding respondents of her study. So focusing just on that group means that youre missing a huge swath of people who are at risk of harming themselves or others and really shouldnt have firearms.

She stressed that the problem with politicians conflating mental illness and red flag laws is that the laws are being treated as mental health intervention when theyre really intended to be behavioral health intervention irrespective of a diagnosis.

Congressman Thompson is a staunch defender of the Second Amendment and rejects any solution that involves removing the right to bear arms for law-abiding American citizens except in the case of people who have a history of mental illness.

Ill never give up my guns and Ill never ask law-abiding Americans who have no history of mental illness to give up their guns, he stated on his website. Not only am I personally against this, but the Constitution forbids it.

However, a 2022 Columbia University study found that only about 5% of mass shootings and other types of mass murder were related to severe mental illness and that half of mass shootings were associated with no red flags.

When asked if his argument that he will never ask law-abiding Americans who have no history of mental illness to give up their guns is flawed given the data, Thompson said, Thats in the constitution.

Americans have a constitutional right to have a firearm, he doubled down in a late May 2023 interview regarding gun violence and mental health. There are things that we can do to make it safe, and thats what Im working on.

Thompsons rhetoric around mental illness and its relation to gun violence is one made by many on both sides of the aisle and is often used as a scapegoat by Republicans after significant mass shootings such as the one that took the lives of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas last year.

Pear believes that Thompsons view comes off as an overly narrow approach thats going to be leaving out a lot of people who could benefit from ERPO law.

Additionally, she argued that this rhetoric has been encouraging other states such as Tennessee to begin shaping their red flag laws around mental illness.

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Letter urging House Speaker to act on gun violence sent hours prior ... - Woodland Daily Democrat