Senator Cornyn Urges Action on Mental Health and Safe Communities Act

For the family and friends of those who lost loved ones two weeks ago, like so many others who have lost their children and their friends and their siblings to one of these shootings, we know the emotions are still raw and real. So it is with great deference to those who have suffered this loss, I want to discuss what I believe to be one of the major contributing factors to these seemingly senseless acts of violence that have occurred across the county.

The legislation I've introduced, Mental Health and Safe Communities Act, attempts to strengthen the safety of our communities by providing families with more options when it comes to treating people with mental illness and to treat them differently than just common criminals.

This legislation would empower families that struggle to help find help for their mentally-ill loved ones and encourage the development of mental health awareness programs in schools to help educators identify students with mental illness and provide them with the resources and the treatment that they need. But it also includes specialized training for those on the front lines, like law enforcement.

This legislation would also encourage state and local governments to create pre-trial screening and assessment programs to identify the mentally-ill offenders and provide need-based treatment and develop post-release supervision plans so they don't become a danger to themselves and others. This bill also strengthens the current background check system by incentivizing information-sharing among the states so that law enforcement has appropriate information regarding individuals with adjudicated mental illness in the criminal justice system.

Some of our Democratic colleagues have said that they're going to introduce some gun control legislation that we all know has been tried before and cannot pass this chamber. What we need is a broad consensus to try to get something done that can bring people together, and I believe my legislation can do that by addressing the root cause of some of these horrific events.

President Obama last week addressed the nation after this horrific incident in Oregon, and I believe his emotions were real, but, unfortunately, he didn't offer any concrete solutions to the problem.

What I've tried to do is figure a way that, okay, given our differences on this issue, how can we find that common ground and offer solutions?

We have a real opportunity to address the common element found in most of these mass shootings and we don't have any time to waste. We can do better for the American people and get the Mental Health and Safe Communities Act done.

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