Mitch McConnell says there's not much the federal government can do to combat school shootings

While speaking to community leaders in Danville, Kentucky, on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said school shootings are an "epidemic," but he doesn't believe "at the federal level there's much that we can do other than appropriate funds."

Activists are calling for several different reforms, including universal background checks on gun purchases and increasing the legal age to buy guns to 21, which are changes that could be made on the federal level, The Lexington Herald Leader notes.

McConnell told the crowd that Congress has been able to appropriate money for schools to offer counseling and increase campus safety. "You would think, given how much it takes to get on an American plane or given how much it takes to get into courthouses, that this might be something that we could achieve, but I don't think we could get that from Washington," he said. "I think it's basically a local decision."

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