Rep. Barry Moore: grandstanding on guns won't make Americans safer

Washington, D.C. — Rep. Barry Moore (AL-02) announced his opposition to the Active Shooter Alert Act of 2022 (H.R. 6538), an anti-gun propaganda program designed to dramatize and inflate the reported number of “active shooter” incidents in an effort to expand support for unconstitutional gun control measures.

“Sensationalizing violence specifically involving guns while ignoring the crime epidemic intensifying on their watch is a blatant attempt by Democrats to promote their anti-Second Amendment agenda, not the safety of Americans,” said Moore. “There are many reasons for the violence and crime in our society, but none of them will be solved by duplicative layers of federal bureaucracy. Washington Democrats must commit to honoring our Constitution and restoring the rule of law before our nation can hope to tackle these issues.”

Active Shooter Alert Act

This bill failed to pass the House on suspension last month and creates new and unnecessary authorities within the Department of Justice with the mandate to create new alert systems for active shooter scenarios. This new alert system that solely focuses on attacks with firearms versus all violent attacks is unnecessary and redundant due to existing state and local alert systems.

• This legislation establishes an Active Shooter Alert Coordinator at the Department of Justice to encourage communities to develop mass alert systems that will notify people in the immediate vicinity of an active shooter in a populated area.
• The bill fails to clearly state when the new system should be used by broadly defining “active shooter” and “populated area” in a way that will allow for active shooter alerts to be sent in virtually any scenario involving the discharge of a firearm.
• State and local officials already have the ability to use the existing Integrated Public Alert and Warning System to alert the public to emergency situations, which include active shooters. 
• As of 2019, there are more than 1,400 alerting authorities across the country, and 400 additional applications were pending with FEMA. 
• Democrats have failed to prove that this new system is necessary and rejected Republican efforts to study the issue.