© 2024 St. Louis Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Blunt calls for more focus on mental health, in response to school shootings

This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Dec. 16, 2012 - U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., says there’s no question that the Connecticut murders of 20 school children and six educators is “a huge tragedy.”

But Blunt, in St. Louis on Saturday, said the question of a response “is a lot more complicated” than calls to ban assault weapons or to put in place other gun-control measures.

“If somebody wants to get a weapon, they’re in all likelihood going to get a weapon,” Blunt told reporters during a question-answer session in Bridgeton.

(Update) On Monday, Blunt went even further, telling reporters in Kansas City that he likely will oppose an reinstatement of the federal assault weapons ban, which Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., plans to introduce.

"I'm sure I would vote against anything that impacts in a negative way the Second Amendment," Blunt told the Kansas City Star. Gun ownership "is an important right, and it is in the Constitution. These laws are not going to change in the near future."

But when asked if hiring armed guards at schools was a good idea, Blunt said, "I don't know that it is." (End of update)

On Sunday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said he would hold hearings on guns and called for a national discussion of gun control and school safety. In an oped in the Chicago Tribune, he called for "reasonable, common-sense limits" on guns and ammunition.

Blunt said during his St. Louis stop on Saturday that a more productive discussion could center on how to better monitor people with mental or emotional problems, which investigators say appear to have been suffered by the shooter, 20-year-old Adam Lanza.

Said Blunt: “I don’t think the weapon is likely to be the problem here, nearly as much as, ‘How do you identify people with these problems in society and try to intervene before they do something that tragically impacts their lives and the lives of others?’ ”

Blunt cited federal efforts in recent years “to make sure that mental-health issues are handled differently by insurance companies. Deal with it as a health problem, not as a problem that’s ‘optionally’ out there.

“Congress can’t solve every problem,” he continued, citing actions in many states over the past 30 years to close their state mental-health institutions, even though the closures have led to some mentally ill people being homeless and roaming the streets.

While Lanza did have a home, Blunt said that he hoped the nation – once past the immediate tragedy – would discuss mental health.

Blunt emphasized that he was as troubled by the killings as most Americans. “I have a young son, I have grandchildren,’’ he said.

He recalled his reaction Friday morning, “Whatever you thought was your problem when you woke up … in all likelihood wasn’t a very big problem at all.”

On Sunday, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the second-ranking Senate Democrat, said his judiciary subcommittee on the constitution will hold a hearing in the next few weeks on issues related to the Second Amendment, which guarantees the right of citizens to bear arms.

“We need to sit down and have a quiet and calm conversation on the Second Amendment,” Durbin told “Fox News Sunday.” He also called for "a national conversation" that would include a discussion of gun control and school safety. 

Durbin contended that the congressional debate tends to be dominated by gun lobbies “that have agendas.” But he thinks that -- because of the outrage about Friday's school shooting in Connecticut -- "we may have a chance" to enact stricter laws in the new Congress.

“I think what happened might at least lead some to sit down” and talk, he said, urging hunters and sportsmen to get into the conversation.

Meanwhile, Feinstein, D-Calif., said she will introduce a bill on the first day of the new Congress to ban the sale of so-called “assault weapons” and high-capacity ammunition clips.

“I’m going to introduce it in the Senate, and the same bill will be introduced in the House,” Feinstein said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

On Saturday, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, a Democrat, said he would also push for stricter state gun laws. He had made similar comments after last July's theater shooting in Aurora, Colo.

"As governor and as a parent, I intend to spearhead passage of strict laws that will protect our children and the people of Illinois from gun violence," Quinn said in a statement.

Tours food bank, discusses 'fiscal cliff'

Blunt’s comments came after he had toured the St. Louis Area Food Bank with the agency’s president, Frank Finnegan. Blunt said that food banks were among the first to offer aid after Hurricane Sandy and needed to be included in the immediate supplemental aid package that Congress is crafting.

Finnegan said that food banks also will be affected by the outcome of the “fiscal cliff’’ negotiations now underway between President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner. The “fiscal cliff” calls for immediate tax hikes and budget cuts; although nutrition programs like food banks are exempted, Finnegan said the banks’ government-funded transportation operations would be affected.

Referring to the “fiscal cliff,” Blunt told reporters, “This issue shouldn’t be that hard to figure out.”

“I’ve had a chance to talk to the president and his staff over the last two weeks,” Blunt said, adding that he told the president that the talks represent “a time to lead. A time to define what your second term is going to be like.”

Blunt observed that voters Nov. 6 opted to stay with a divided government, with a Democrat as president, Democrats in control of the Senate, and Republicans still in control of the House.

“I don’t think the president benefits from any agreement’’ that doesn’t have the support of at least a majority of the GOP House members, Blunt said. If Boehner agrees to a deal without the support of a majority of Republican House members, even if he’s backed by lots of Democrats, the senator said the result could have an impact on other issues down the road.

'Fiscal cliff' deal could affect debt-ceiling debate

One of those pending issues is the federal debt ceiling, which Blunt said the Obama administration will need to have increased by mid-March.

Any bipartisan agreement also must include changes in Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, the senator added, contended that the programs are “not going to last if you don’t reform them.”

The president has a golden opportunity to make his mark on history, Blunt said, citing the bipartisan agreement on Social Security struck in the 1980s between President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, and House Speaker Tip O’Neill, a Democrat.

“President Obama can become the Ronald Reagan of the next 40-35 years, if he’s willing to’’ agree to some entitlement changes, Blunt said.

The senator added that he lamented “the missed opportunity of the last two years, (when) we didn’t take advantage of the divided government” to reach bipartisan solutions on various major federal issues.

“Divided government is a good time to solve big problems,” Blunt said. “Because when you’ve got divided government, (it) doesn’t become a political issue because everybody, both parties, have to have their fingerprints on it.”

Jo Mannies is a freelance journalist and former political reporter at St. Louis Public Radio.
Jason is the politics correspondent for St. Louis Public Radio.