- Senator Mike Rounds told CNN that Congress has gone “as far as we go with gun control.”
- He suggested that instead of gun reform, schools use funds set aside for solar panels to pay for more safety.
- Three students and three adults were killed Monday in the country’s latest school shooting in Nashville.
Republican Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota suggested schools should use funds set aside for green power upgrades to pay for more security since Congress has “gone as far as we go with policing. firearms “.
During an appearance On CNN’s “This Morning,” co-anchor Kaitlan Collins asked Rounds if Congress could take legislative action following the mass shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, that killed three students and three adults Monday.
“I look at my colleagues here and there’s nobody here who, if they could find the right approach, wouldn’t try to do something,” Rounds said.
He then added, “And yet when we start talking about Second Amendment bans or challenges, I think the things that have already been done have gone as far as we go with gun control.”
Rounds then explained to CNN that instead of gun control, he would like to take some of the $500 million in funding already earmarked to build new solar panels at schools nationwide and reallocate it to schools to bolster their safety.
“I’m not ready to start talking about the implementation of more [legislation] when we know, right now, that we could make our schools safer than they are today if they had the resources to do so,” he said.
—Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) March 29, 2023
Collins noted that it was “pretty striking” that Rounds did not think additional gun reform legislation could pass Congress before noting that the conservative lawmaker voted against the bipartisan bill. on gun safety that was championed and signed into law by President Joe Biden last year.
The new law earmarked millions of dollars for mental health services, school safety and crisis intervention programs. It also provided $750 million in federal funds to individual states to put in place Red Flag laws, which allow law enforcement to temporarily restrict access to firearms to people who are at high risk. hurt themselves or others.
When Rounds was asked if he still stood by his “no” vote on the bipartisan gun safety bill, the lawmaker did not change his position.
“Let’s look at exactly what’s going on with mental health, and do you have the proper safeguards to protect people accused of not being able to get a gun,” he said. “This particular bill hasn’t even been fully implemented yet.”
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