March 23 (UPI) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday announced two proposals to prevent gun violence and school shootings during a visit to Parkland, Fla., the scene of a 2018 mass shooting.
Harris toured parts of the school building where a lone gunman and former student took 17 lives on Valentine’s Day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Her tour of the school building is one of the last times anyone will be allowed inside it before is is demolished this summer, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
After touring the shuttered school building, Harris announced two Biden administration proposals to quell gun violence.
One proposal would create the National Extreme Risk Protection Order Resource Center and fund it with $750 million to implement state-level red flag laws throughout the nation, White House officials announced.
Red flag laws enables family members or law enforcement to request court orders to remove firearms from people who might harm themselves or others.
“Red flag laws are simply designed to allow communities a vehicle through which they can share, and have somewhere to share it, information about the concern about the potential danger or the crying out for help of an individual and then let’s give it to them before tragedy occurs,” Harris said. “Part of why I am here today is to challenge every state to pass a red flag law.”
The second proposal encourages state legislatures to enact red flag laws and use available federal funding to implement existing laws that would disarm those who might harm themselves or others.
Red flag laws “generally create a civil process for law enforcement (and often times family members) to seek a judicial order that a person is a danger to themselves or others and should temporarily lose the ability to purchase and possess firearms,” the White House said. “The laws have due process protections that ensure people’s rights are respected, but also enable a concrete way to intervene.”
White House officials said a Department of Homeland Security review of school violence incidents shows warning signs often existed in advance of school mass shootings, including individuals telling others of their plans to attack a school.
The Biden administration says 21 states have enacted red flag laws, but only six have obtained federal funding to implement the laws. The administration wants the other 29 states to enact similar red flag laws and have all states use available federal funding to implement them.
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said the proposals to be unveiled by Harris are “radical,” “trampling” due process and 2nd Amendment rights despite Florida lawmakers already enacting laws to prevent subsequent school shootings in the state.
“The Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act improved school safety in Florida and has helped law enforcement make appropriate interventions with people who pose a threat of violence to themselves or others while robustly protecting due process rights that stop unlawful infringement of the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding Floridians,” Scott said in a statement.
“This stands in stark contract to the Biden-Harris administration’s push for nationwide implementation of radical policies, like California’s red flag law, which abandons due process to more quickly and easily take constitutional rights away from law-abiding Americans,” Scott said. “That is unacceptable.”