Sen. Mitch McConnell visited the Maysville Rotary Club Tuesday where he was asked about gun reform amid last week’s school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, but didn’t give any details on actions he would take.
McConnell told LEX 18 political reporter Karolina Buczek that he was discussing how Democrats and Republicans might come together to “target the problem.” He elaborated that they would address mental illness and school safety.
“We are discussing how we might be able to come together to target the problem, which is mental illness and school safety,” McConnell said. “We get back at it next week and hope to have some results.”
Congress is on break this week for the Memorial Day holiday.
President Joe Biden in recent weeks called McConnell a “rational Republican.” The Kentucky legislator said he met with Republican Texas Sen. John Cornyn to discuss reaching across the aisle on gun reform.
“Families like those in Texas and Buffalo and so many other communities are suffering incomparable grief, and we owe them viable solutions that make a difference, not inaction or unfunded programs,” said Rep. Rachel Roberts (D-Newport) recently to LINK nky, referencing the Uvalde shooting and a deadly shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo that left ten people dead on May 14.
One law that passed out of the session was a school resource officer bill that will require Kentucky schools to have an SRO in place by August.
“An SRO is not going to stop everybody and everything,” said Rep. Kevin Bratcher (R-Louisville), the bill’s sponsor. “It’s just there as a preventative measure to hopefully be able to stop a situation like that. It’s certainly better than nothing.”
But, the law is also causing trouble for schools that have to come up with the resources to fund an SRO.
“Here in Kentucky, this year’s legislation calling on school-resource officers to be in each school lacked funding and gave school districts the ability to effectively waive the requirement if they could not afford an officer,” Roberts said.