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The House passed a bill to create an Active Shooter Alert Communications Network that would allow federal officials to work with state and tribal governments to create an infrastructure to notify people if there is an active shooter in their area.
The bill failed last month when House members voted down a motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, which requires two-thirds approval. On Wednesday, the House passed the bill in a more traditional fashion, with a simple majority of 260 to 168. It was another vote in favor of the bill received in June.
The bill had some bipartisan support, with 43 Republicans voting in favor, though most opposed it. One House Democrat, Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., voted against, as he did on the previous vote. Supporters of the bill said it would provide important help in notifying people of dangerous situations in their neighborhoods, while opponents called it unnecessary and likely to cause fear among the American public.
“This bill is a common sense piece of public safety legislation that the police have asked for over and over and over and we’re overdue to give it to them,” Congressman David Cicilline, DR.I., one of the House members , who introduced the bill, said in the chamber.
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The bill would create a position within the Department of Justice known as the National Active Shooter Alert Communications Network Coordinator. Working with the FEMA Administrator, the Secretary of Transportation, and the FCC Chairman, the Coordinator will ensure that state and local governments have systems in place to respond to active shooter situations and encourage them to develop warning systems so that local populations can can be notified if there is a shooter nearby.
“We already have this type of warning infrastructure at the federal level, let’s maximize its potential to save lives and give officers the tools they need to keep their communities safe,” Cicilline said. The Democrat noted that the bill does not require police departments to use the system, but gives them the option if they think it would be useful.
Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who introduced the bill with Cicilline, pointed to the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Ill., arguing that the services the bill provides could save lives.
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a system to alert the entire parade route to take cover and maybe some of those people who were killed or injured wouldn’t have happened?” he asked.
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Rep. Matt Goetz, R-Fla., speaking on the floor, warned that the bill could have unintended consequences. He gave a hypothetical situation of a stadium full of concertgoers, all alerted if someone fired a gun a few blocks away, perhaps even by accident.
“Will it make the situation safer? Of course not. It will lead to stampede, tragedy, hysteria, error, maybe even more death,” he said.
Goetz noted that the bill does not specify the distance from an incident at which people will still receive alerts, and it does not clarify what types of events would warrant an alert.
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“This bill is like yelling ‘fire’ in a movie theater, only the fire is in another movie theater across the street,” he said.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, similarly said the bill represented “fear-mongering by Democrats that guns are a perpetual threat.”
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