In response to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, last week, some Alabama lawmakers are already looking at ways to prevent future mass shootings in the Yellowhammer State.
State Senate Majority Leader Clay Scofield (R-Guntersville) recently joined Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal” and said the legislature needed to focus on solutions to help keep Alabama’s schools secure.
“Obviously, school safety is extremely important,” he said. “We need to definitely look and make sure that we are funding that appropriately with our school resource officers.”
He said parents shouldn’t have to worry about their children’s security when they were in the classroom.
“Just make sure that our schools are secure,” he said. “We need to make sure that our schoolchildren know that they’re safe, parents know that they’re safe when they drop their child off at school. And make sure that those schools have those resources to secure their schools and have safety officers there on each campus.”
Scofield also highlighted how Alabama had been addressing the mental health issue in recent years, which he said was part of the solution to prevent this type of violence.
“I think also our mental health,” he continued. “We’re making very significant investments in our mental health facilities in Alabama. We are investing significant dollars to these regional facilities, getting them up and going, and I think that Alabama is going to continue to fund mental health in significant ways, and change they way that we deliver those services to those who need it.”
When asked if the legislature might consider red flag laws, the Senate majority leader said he wasn’t sure if it could pass but expected it to come up for debate in the next session.
“That I don’t know,” he lamented. “I’m sure there will be some legislation that will be introduced. I think we’ve had some of that legislation in the past. There’s been talks about it so I would imagine that someone will probably introduce that, be up for debate as would anything. We’ll take a look at it and see.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” Weekdays 9-11am on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
