Cline votes NO on school security and mental health services

A handful of House Republicans broke ranks from their GOP colleagues Friday to approve modest gun reform legislation.

Of course, Congressman Cline was among the majority of Republicans who voted NO.

The bill passed by a 234-193 margin, with 14 House Republicans voting in favor. It comes after 15 Senate Republicans broke ranks and voted for the bill late Thursday night.

The bipartisan measure, negotiated by Democratic and Republican senators with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s blessing, includes multimillion dollar investments in mental health services and school security, as well as a new federal ban on gun trafficking.

The gun safety bill would also offer new funding to support states and tribes that seek to enact “red flag” laws — which allow authorities to confiscate guns from individuals deemed a threat to themselves or others — closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole,” and subjecting gun purchasers under the age of 21 to new background check requirements.

President Biden signed the bill into law.

Since the massacre of 19 schoolchildren and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, last month, Cline has called for increased school security and mental health services. This law provides for them. But because it contains provisions that might keep guns out of the hands of some people who are a danger to themselves or others, Cline apparently considered it a threat to “Second Amendment Rights.”

So Cline voted NO on the school security and mental health services he claims to want in order to protect the right of potentially dangerous people to own whatever and however many guns they want.