Education and Labor Committee
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Representative:
On behalf of the 3 million members of the NEA who teach, nurture, and support students in 14,000 communities across America, thank you for holding this markup of the School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act (H.R. 5428). We urge you to vote YES on this bill. Votes associated with this issue may be included in NEA’s Report Card for the 117th Congress.
NEA members support the School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act because it takes a number of steps to track and categorize these tragic incidents, yielding valuable information that will help the public and policy makers safeguard school communities.
The legislation creates a definition of “school shootings”—currently absent in federal law—to help alleviate the differences in how media organizations, interest groups, and others talk about the tragedies. This will provide a common vantage point for identifying trends and devising effective solutions to help save lives.
The School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act would:
- Require the Secretary of Education to provide an annual report (produced by the National Center for Education Statistics) on indicators of school safety for each school where a shooting occurs, including the number of people killed and injured; the demographics of shooters and victims; the types of firearms and ammunition used; how weapons were acquired; and the shooter’s motivation; and
- Require NCES to gather information on the existence or absence of safety and prevention measures at schools where shootings occurred.
Gun violence destabilizes us all; no one—least of all our children—should have to endure it. Please vote YES on the School Shooting Safety and Preparedness Act so that we may learn more about these horrific incidents and take effective steps to prevent them. NEA members believe the legislation is an important step in advancing gun violence prevention and look forward to additional legislative efforts to address this issue and ensure our schools are safe for both students and educators.
Sincerely,
Marc Egan
Director of Government Relations
National Education Association
