Sen. Chuck Grassley advocates for EAGLES Act on Parkland anniversary
Four years after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, Sen. Chuck Grassley is advocating for a bill, the EAGLES Act, that he says will prevent shootings by identifying troubled youth and getting them help.
Sen. Chuck Grassley speaks with reporters outside of Iowa City High School after a Q&A session with students on June 2, 2021.
February 16, 2022
After the four year anniversary of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, is continuing to push for his legislation, which he says will prevent such gun violence.
The EAGLES Act, named after the mascot for Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, would add trained professions to the Secret Service’s National Threat Assessment program that works to prevent violent crime. It would also establish an initiative to look at school violence prevention and expand research on school violence.
In a Senate floor speech on Monday, Grassley said this legislation is supported by over 40 state attorneys general, and organizations including Stand with Parkland, the Fraternal Order of Police, the National Association of Secondary School Principals and Major County Sheriffs of America.
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“Seventeen innocent souls lost their lives to a troubled young man,” Grassley said in his floor speech, “We must continue to find solutions to prevent these horrific acts.”
Grassley said that while he wrote the bill with schools in mind, it could also prevent shootings at workplaces or places of worship.
“The whole idea is to get teachers and administrators and anybody that works in a school training to identify somebody that’s got some problems so that they get the help they need and prevent [shootings],” Grassley said on a press call on Wednesday.
Grassley’s bill proposes a Safe School Initiative that would expand research on how violence in schools happens, and how they can be prevented.
The National Institute of Injustice published an article which claims that most people who commit mass shootings are in a state of crisis at the time, and would leak their plans before committing the act
“While we can’t undo the tragedy that happened four years ago, or other tragedies of the past,” Grassley said. “We must keep working on ways to prevent these tragedies.”
Grassley has blocked previous efforts to require background checks and expand reviews for gun purchases in the wake of school shootings.
