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

(Image credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

published 4 July 2018

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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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

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