Active Shooter Alert Act of 2022

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHNEIDER. Madam Speaker, we are hearing a lot of arguments today. My colleague on the other side talked about America at its best. Let me tell you about America at its best.

Last Monday on July 4 in Highland Park, Illinois, thousands of people gathered together. Families, parents, grandparents, and children lined the road for a parade. Many of them came there year after year, generation after generation, to celebrate the birth of our country, the values of our Founders, and the belief that this is a Nation for us all. I saw America at its best.

At 10:14 on July 4 last week, a shooter who had climbed a roof with an AR-15 fired 83 bullets in less than a minute, killing seven people and wounding dozens of others.

Thousands of people fled that parade, the best America has to offer, not knowing where to go, not knowing what to do. They heard there was a shooter. Was it one? Was it two? It could have been many. Should they go home, or should they go somewhere else? Nobody knew.

Imagine if on their phones they had been told of an active shooter at the corner of Second and Central. Imagine if on their phones, they had been told, go and seek safety in your home. For 8 hours, people watched, people talked, rumors swirled. An entire community of 30,000 people was left to grieve and to fear.

That is what this bill is about. That is why we are here. We are here to give the people of Highland Park or of the many communities around our country that have experienced an active shooter, or will experience an active shooter, a little bit of security.

According to the FBI, last year, there were 61 active shooting incidents in the country. That was last year alone and double the year before. We are seeing more violence in our country. We have to do something about this violence.

I know the people who are arguing against this bill aren't willing to do that. They are not willing to stand up and defend our communities, to keep our children safe from this kind of violence. They are not even willing to give our communities the information they need to seek safety on their own.

We have to take action to stop these killings in our communities, but that is not what this bill is about. This bill is about getting people the critical, potentially lifesaving information in a quick and efficient way in the event of a shooter. That is what this bill is about. That is why I am asking people to vote for it.

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