(CNSNews.com) – Everyone is “reeling” from the horror in Las Vegas, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told a news conference on Tuesday.
“Parents are grieving for their children. This is just awful. We cannot let the actions of a single person define us as a country.”
Ryan said the acts of heroism following the tragedy are what “truly defines us.”
“And there are just hundreds of stories of people looking out for one another, strangers helping each other, first responders rushing in to shield people…people lining up right now today…to give blood. This is what America is — people helping each other.”
Ryan called for healing, prayer and unity, and he said better days are coming because “we will overcome this.”
He took three questions, all of them dealing with public safety and guns.
“One of the things we’ve learned from these shootings is that often underneath this is a diagnosis of mental illness,” Ryan said. “This is why we spent years working on mental illness reform, Congressman Murphy’s bill, and that’s why the House passed landmark mental health reform just a year ago. That law is now being implemented,” he said.
“So I think it’s important that as we see the dust settle, and we see what was behind some of these tragedies, that mental health reform is a critical ingredient to making sure that we can try and prevent some of these things from happening…So that’s just one example of the things that Congress has done to make sure that we can try and get ahead of these problems.”
So far, there is no indication that the man who shot so many people at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas had any history of mental illness.
A reporter asked Ryan why the Republicans in February repealed an Obama-era regulation requiring the Social Security Administration to adjudicate people mentally defective if they required help managing their federal benefits. The rule required SSA to send the names of those people to the National Instant Background Check System, barring them from purchasing guns.
Democrats said by repealing that rule, Republicans were making it easier for mentally ill people to get guns. But critics of the rule raised due process and equal protection concerns.
“It’s a little more complicated than you’re describing,” Ryan told the reporter. “Protecting people’s rights was very important, and that’s what that issue was all about.”
As for legislation that would make it easier for people to buy gun suppressors (silencers), Ryan said, “That bill’s not scheduled now. I don’t know when it’s going to be scheduled.
“Right now, we’re focused on passing our budget. By the way, we’re bringing our budget up this week.” Ryan said the Republicans’ current focus is improving people’s lives through tax reform.
(First reported by CNS News) https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/speaker-ryan-stresses-acts-heroism-mental-health-reform (October 3, 2017)
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