Uvalde

Last Thursday, DOJ’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) issued its report on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. It is an after-action report, designed to prevent future tragedies through better training. It is not the sort of work done by one of DOJ’s litigating divisions to evaluate whether there should be criminal prosecutions or some type of civil action.

COPS was created in 1994 by the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. Since then, they’ve done important work focused on helping state, local, territorial, and tribal law enforcement agencies adopt evidence-based best practices. They provide information, technical assistance, training, and grant resources to agencies across the country. In my experience at DOJ, they were highly regarded by their law enforcement partners, and their grants really helped agencies that otherwise lacked funding to do their jobs better—to be more focused on communities and on their obligation to protect people’s constitutional rights while preventing and investigating crime.

But while this report is an important one that will doubtless train law enforcement to avoid repeats of the horrific errors that happened in Uvalde, COPS cannot do the most important thing that needs doing. Nor can DOJ. Only Congress, with leadership from the White House, can keep AR-15s and similar weapons out of the hands of people who will use them to take others’ lives.

The week before last, I asked you to help me compile a list of all of the important reasons to keep Trump out of the White House, and your contributions in the comments were tremendous. I’ve already found myself referring back to them. The Uvalde report crystallized another important reason for me: the tragedy that Trump’s return to power would signal for any efforts to stop mass shootings. He will not lift a finger to address gun violence in America.

Ahead of the Iowa Caucuses and just 36 hours after a school shooting in Perry, Iowa, left one student dead and seven people injured, including their principal who subsequently died of wounds taken while trying to protect his students, Trump told Iowans to “get over” the shooting at one of his campaign events. Guns before kids. Trump will never take steps to reduce the mass shootings that happen across America every year.

Gun reform has never been easy. But even a step supported by a majority of Americans, a ban on assault-style weapons, will not happen if Trump is back in office. It will probably take a Democrat in the White House and Democratic majorities in Congress in both the House and the Senate.

Although that’s the harsh political reality, it doesn’t make much sense. A Fox News Poll in April of 2023 reflected strong support for sensible restrictions on firearms by overwhelming numbers of Americans, as do any number of polls on this issue:

• 87% of voters surveyed said they supported requiring criminal background checks for all gun buyers.

• 77% supported requiring a 30-day waiting period for all gun purchases.

• Vast majorities also supported raising the legal age to buy guns to 21 (81%) and requiring mental health checks for all gun purchasers (80%).

• 80% of voters said police should be allowed to take guns away from people considered a danger to themselves or others.

• 61% of voters supported banning assault rifles and semi-automatic weapons.

In that same month, and following the mass shootings in Monterey Park, California; Louisville, Kentucky; and Nashville, Tennessee, earlier that year, Trump spoke to the NRA’s national meeting. He told them, "I was proud to be the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president you've ever had in the White House.” He committed to “be your loyal friend and fearless champion once again as the 47th president of the United States."

When we talk about picking candidates to vote for in 2024, keep in mind their stances on gun violence. DOJ can continue spending its resources—our resources—writing tragic after-action reports on mass shootings. But what we really need is real action on preventive measures that work. A 2019 Senate Judiciary Committee report concluded that mass shootings decreased by 37% when the assault weapons ban was in place from 1994 to 2004 and rose by 183% after the ban expired.

So why would Trump and his party continue to oppose restrictions? After the Parkland shooting, Trump spoke out in favor of new measures before caving in to NRA demands in a subsequent off-the-record meeting. After the El Paso shooting in 2022, the New York Times reported this exchange between Trump and his acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney:

Trump: “What are we going to do about assault rifles?”

Mulvaney: “Not a damn thing.”

Trump: “Why?”

Mulvaney: “Because you would lose.”

That is what matters to Trump. He never took steps toward an assault weapons ban after that, and he never will because Trump cares about power, not people. While after-action reports are important, they don’t prevent 17-year-olds from getting AR-15s and killing their classmates. It’s going to take serious leadership to do that, and we are never going to get it from Trump. Let’s encourage people to think about it as they prepare to vote.

We’re in this together,

Joyce