(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) on Sunday proposed setting up an Amber alert type system to notify people in the area of a shooting so that they can take precaution.
“We need to have this conversation. I will tell you every mass shooting, there’s just silence, and prayers are offered, Easter baskets are offered, but no real solutions, and I'm a constitutional conservative, but I’ll tell you, Shannon, about a week ago my kids and I were a mile away from a massive shooting in South Carolina where six people were shot,” the congresswoman told “Fox News Sunday.”
“We saw the immediate aftermath of that shooting, all the police cars and EMS, and the first thing my kids asked me in moments after that shooting, they said, hey, where is at Amber Alert to let us know that we’re near a massive shooting and maybe we should have taken cover or maybe not left the house so we can be safe, and Republicans can no longer be silent on this issue,” Mace said.
“It's not about the Second Amendment. There are plenty of things we can be doing besides offering prayers and silence - some sort of Amber Alert to let the community know there's been a shooting, strengthening our background checks is something the vast majority of Americans support, hardening our schools should churches and synagogues so there is deterrence so when a shooter, potential mass shooter enters a place that they know that maybe be they’re not going to make it through, because there’s bulletproof doors, bulletproof windows,” she said.
“Those kinds of commonsense things are all things every American on either side of the aisle can get behind it, but yet every time there's a massive shooting, and they’re increasing every year, every week, we don't say anything, want to bury heads in the sand and hope that it goes away, but guess what. It's not going away, and I see it,” the congresswoman said.
“I’m in a very purple district even though I'm in South Carolina. It is an issue that continues to be a problem for Republicans, and we’ve not learned anything from the midterm elections if we’re going to sit on our hands silently, not offering any type of solution to reduce gun violence in our country, and it’s not about gun control,” she said.
Mace said that “with the vast majority of Americans, there’s common ground” on the issue of gun violence, but in Congress, it’s different.
“Both sides - whether abortion or gun violence – both sides tend to dig their heels and not offer any middle ground. I've been working on gun violence issues for a number of years as a state lawmaker and now as a member of Congress, and I’m trying to show a way that we can do that,” the congresswoman said.
“One of the other issues we have on strengthening our background checks is that we have all these databases at the federal and state level that are all over the place. There’s not one piece of software where you can merge all that information together to know in 60 seconds whether or not this is a bad guy trying to buy a gun,” Mace said.
“It doesn't have to be complicated but we need to show leadership on sensitive issues because of these are issues that motivate our constituencies, and voters, especially independent voters. Shannon, quite frankly, Republicans haven't won a majority the popular vote in years when it comes to the presidency and that something we need to work on and do better, and this is an issue that we can win on,” she said.