Rep. Davis: Let’s Combat Mass Shootings As We Do Terrorism, Drug Trafficking, and Child Exploitation

Washington, DC – U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.) today announced he has joined a group of lawmakers in introducing the Mass Violence Prevention Act to combat mass shootings as the federal government has done with terrorism, drug trafficking, and child exploitation.

“We could create another law that does nothing but infringe on law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment right or we could create a system that could have stopped the last mass shooting and might stop the next,” said Davis. “We have many levels of law enforcement and thousands of laws across this country that work every day to prevent gun violence, but we can do better. This bill creates a system to combat mass shootings like we combat terrorism, drug trafficking, and child exploitation. Whether it was Parkland or most recently Aurora, when law enforcement doesn’t coordinate and laws are not enforced, people who shouldn’t have guns fall through the cracks. This kind of coordinated system has a track record of success with other complex crime and we should be applying it to mass shootings.”

H.R. 1339, the Mass Violence Prevention Act increases coordination among law enforcement to identify and stop mass shootings, reduces the flow of firearms into the black market, and increases prosecution of firearm-related crimes to help address gun violence from every angle. Details include:

Establishes a fusion center

• Establishes a fusion center at the FBI modeled off of successful Justice Department programs for combating terrorism, drug trafficking, and child exploitation through proactive information sharing and coordination among local, state, and federal law enforcement.
• New resources would be dedicated to preventing mass shootings and focus those resources on initiatives proven to work.
• Fusion centers would be used to prevent what happened in Parkland where multiple law enforcement agencies missed opportunities to intervene or in Aurora, IL where the attacker illegally possessed a firearm, but the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was never notified of the illegal possession.

Reducing illegal street sales

• The Mass Violence Prevention Act will help get illegal guns off the streets by strengthening the penalty for burglary or robbery of a retail firearm store.
• Addressing guns on the black market is critical to preventing gun violence.

Prosecuting and prevent violent crime

• This bill authorizes DOJ to hire additional Assistant U.S. Attorneys to specifically prosecute gun violence cases and enforce the laws we already have.
• This is particularly important in cities like Chicago where dismantling of gangs is critical to reducing gun violence.

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