By a vote of 260 to 169, the House of Representatives Wednesday approved the bipartisan Active Shooter Alert Act to create an Amber Alert-like system for active shooter situations.

The bill was cosponsored by Democratic Congressman David Cicilline and Republican Congressman Fred Upton.

The measure would allow law enforcement to deploy the alert system in emergency situations and notify the public about active shooters.

Cicilline and Upton said it could be used in situations like what unfolded after the mass shooting in Highland Park, Ill., on the Fourth of July, when the suspected gunman was at large for eight hours and was able to drive to Wisconsin. Another situation when the alert system could have been used was in April, when a suspect was at large for about 29 hours after allegedly shooting people at a subway station in Brooklyn.

In active shooter events, authorities have had to resort to using Twitter and social media to tell the public about the situation, Cicilline said.

“This is terribly inefficient and dangerous,” he said in a statement. “Law enforcement needs and deserves better tools than Twitter to communicate with the community and the Active Shooter Alert Act answers that call.”

Upton said in a statement that the alert system would allow police and first responders “to focus on ending the situation and saving lives.” He said he heard from “law enforcement and police chiefs that active shooter alerts can be a vital tool to provide accurate, real-time information to our communities, and one they believe will help in these dangerous situations.”

Forty-three Republicans and all but one Democrat voted YES. For reasons I can’t even begin to guess, Congressman Cline and 167 other Republicans voted NO.

I posted here on June 10 about Congressman Cline’s lack of reaction to the first hearing this month of the House Select Committee investigating the circumstances surrounding the January 6 pro-Trump insurrection at the U.S. Capitol

On June 16, three days after the second hearing, Cline was asked in an interview on WHSV-TV about the committee and the testimony it heard.

First Cline refused to answer whether he agrees with Donald Trump’s former attorney general Bill Barr and Trump campaign officials that there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election.

He was asked if he had seen Barr’s testimony. He replied, “I have not.”

Has he watched any of the testimony, almost entirely from Republicans?

He complained: “We’re not seeing the cross-examination of witnesses. What we’re seeing is an echo chamber designed by Nancy Pelosi to arrive at a preconceived conclusion. He added, “The January 6 commission is an echo chamber and we’re only going to hear that testimony that the January 6 commission wants us to hear.”

Of course people like Mark Meadows, John Eastman and Jeffrey Clarke– who presumably could challenge the testimony of the witnesses implicating Trump– have refused to testify or invoked the Fifth Amendment.

And the Republicans on the committee– Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger– are not taking instructions from Nancy Pelosi.

Asked about his vote in Congress after the January 6 insurrection to reject the electoral votes for Joe Biden from Arizona and Pennsylvania, Cline said, “I stand by my objections.”

And he refused to answer when asked if Joe Biden won a fair election.

Despite the testimony from Barr and other Republican officials denying claims of massive voter fraud, Cline continues to support Trump’s debunked objections.

He said: “I signed onto the lawsuit asking the Supreme Court hear these challenges to a lot of what we were seeing across the country. That lawsuit was rejected by the Supreme Court. But this, I believe there should have been the opportunity in court to allow a lot of that evidence to be presented, much of which dealt with a lot of activities around the polls that were controversial and some of which, as I said, were in violation of the law.”

Cline shrugged off the 60 lawsuits lost by the Trump campaign seeking to overturn election results, saying they were mostly procedural. “There were a lot of allegations and very few of them were actually heard on the merits.”

You mean like this one, Congressman?

I doubt Cline bothered to watch the powerful testimony Tuesday by Cassidy Hutchinson, former aide to Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, which might have interfered with his own preconceived conclusions.

Does Cline care that Trump knew that many of his supporters were armed on January 6, but told them to march on the Capitol? Or that Trump tried to grab the steering wheel of his limousine from a Secret Service agent who was driving him back to the White House instead of the Capitol and lunged at an agent? Or that his reaction to the chants of his supporters to “Hang Mike Pence” was that “Mike deserves it”?

Perhaps Cline was among the Republican lawmakers who were “privately stunned.” But I doubt it.

Oh, and Congressman: The Select Committee is still seeking testimony from your pal Jim Jordan.

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.

A popular chant at the demonstration in downtown Lexington Saturday afternoon protesting the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which Congressman Cline celebrated.

One day before declaring that #LifeWins following the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, Congressman Cline was one of just 42 members of the House (all Republicans) to vote NO on the Keep Kids Fed Act.

As NBC News reports, the legislation extends “some food assistance measures for children that anti-hunger advocates have called critical as more parents struggle with the rising costs of inflation, less than a week before the measures were set to end.”

The pandemic-era child nutrition waivers have helped millions of kids get access to meals both in school and during the summer for the last two years and were scheduled to expire June 30.

The bipartisan legislation now heads to the president’s desk for his signature. It would extend some of the dozens of child nutrition waivers that Congress gave the Agriculture Department the authority to issue at the start of the pandemic.

…..

The Keep Kids Fed Act would enable summer meal program providers to operate with more flexibility and help schools in the coming academic year as they continue to cope with supply chain interruptions and labor shortages.

So once again, Cline’s professed concern for “life” ends with the birth of actual children whose families depend of federal nutrition assistance to keep them fed and, um, alive.

There’s an interesting contrast between the way Congressman Cline reacted to the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade on his Congressional Facebook page and his campaign Facebook page.

Here is the former:

And here is the latter:

So on his Congressional Facebook page, Cline frames abortion as strictly a matter for states to decide, with no reference to the moral issue. He doesn’t seem to be celebrating.

On his campaign Facebook page, clearly aimed at what he perceives as his base, he’s in a celebratory mood.

Is he nervous about a backlash among the majority of voters who support at least some abortion rights? Perhaps he has reason to be– even in the Republican-leaning Sixth District.

Yes, physical threats against Supreme Court justices are abhorrent. And those who make them deserve to be arrested and prosecuted.

You can believe this and also appreciate the work of the House January 6 Committee to investigate and report on the attempt by former President Trump (“our great president”) to subvert the results of the 2020 election, and on those who aided and abetted that effort– violently or otherwise.

Unless you are Congressman Ben Cline, who posted on Facebook today about the former and has yet to acknowledge the Committee’s powerful opening hearing on Thursday.

I hope Cline has the decency to feel the sting of his brave Republican colleague Liz Cheney’s words.

My letter to the editor in the June 8 edition of The News-Gazette, which circulates in Rockbridge County, Lexington and Buena Vista:

I’m not currently a gun owner. But I know that many good people of many political persuasions own guns, and I have no problem with responsible owners having firearms for hunting, recreation and protection.

Which brings us to our Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline.

In an interview on WRVA radio the day after the Uvalde massacre, he repeated the worn-out talking points that Congressional Republicans use to avoid enacting serious gun violence prevention measures.

Cline proposed posting retired police officers at schools. A retired police officer fired at the racist mass murderer at the supermarket in Buffalo on May 14, but the murderer was wearing body armor and the retired officer was among those killed.

He said, “Let’s talk about mental health counseling.” But as far as I can tell, Cline has never done anything in Congress to provide resources to woefully-underfunded mental health services.

And other countries have mental health problems too. But ours is the only country where horrors like those in Buffalo and Uvalde happen on such a regular basis.

Cline talks endlessly about protecting “Second Amendment rights.” But as the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said, the Second Amendment “is not unlimited. [It is] not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.”

Does Cline believe this? His position on “gun rights” is so extreme (more extreme than most gun owners) that when he was in the House of Delegates, he bragged about his endorsement by the Virginia Citizens Defense League— which believes the National Rifle Association is too soft.

He actually opposed issuing a new Virginia license plate with the message: “Stop Gun Violence.”

Cline shouldn’t be allowed to go unchallenged. He needs to be asked specifically why he opposes universal background checks for gun purchases. (Does he support any background checks at all?) Why is he against red flag laws to temporarily remove firearms from people who are a clear threat to themselves or others? Why does he oppose limits on high-capacity magazines? Does he support any restrictions on private arms ownership at all? How about fully automatic weapons? Grenade launchers?

Where does he draw the line? Does he draw it anywhere?

And after Buffalo, Uvalde, Tulsa, etc., etc., this is all that Cline can say:

Congressman Cline: Is this all you have to offer after the mass murder of 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas?

No matter how frequent and horrific these tragedies are, we can’t expect anything different from you. Can we?

Going back to his days in the Virginia House of Delegates, Cline has prided himself in standing with the most extreme “gun rights” advocates– far more extreme than most gun owners.

From previous posts at Cline Watch:

Cline on the Virginia Beach massacre

On Saturday– one day after the atrocity– Cline addressed a meeting of the Sixth District Republican Committee in Harrisonburg. He did not mention Virginia Beach at all. But he did restate his commitment to opposing any and all forms of firearms regulation. He said that when he entered Congress this year, he urged Republican leaders to appoint him to the Judiciary Committee and “task me with defeating gun control bills.”

As a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Cline helped kill virtually every legislative effort to impose regulations of any kind on ownership of firearms or the kinds of weapons and accessories that can be sold or owned in the commonwealth.

In 2018, after he was named chair of the Militia, Police, and Public Safety Committee in the House of Delegates, he bragged about his endorsements by the National Rifle Association (one of the largest donors to his campaigns) and the Virginia Citizens Defense League— which prides itself on being more extreme than the NRA.

…..

“This, after all, is a man who opposed issuing a new Virginia license plate with the message: ‘Stop Gun Violence.'”

Cline toes the NRA line on background checks

Congressman Cline joined other Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday to oppose a bill to bolster background checks for firearms purchases.

By opposing universal background checks, Cline and other Republicans are defying the vast majority of Americans, including those of their own party and gun owners.

Nonetheless the NRA opposes the background check bill. And Cline– a recipient of NRA campaign contributions as a candidate for House of Delegates and for Congress— was pleased to record a spot for the NRA toeing their line.

Cline opposes expanded law protecting women from violence

Cline, who dutifully supports the NRA’s position on every issue, has in turn been generously supported by the the NRA as a candidate for House of Delegates and for Congress.

See also:

What are you suggesting, Congressman?

Cline’s irresponsible tweet

Cline again rejects gun safety laws

After El Paso and Dayton, Cline is still in the NRA’s pocket

For his latest campaign fundraising gimmick, Congressman Cline has posted this ad on Facebook:

The White House recently reported that states and localities throughout the country have so far dedicated $10 billion from the American Rescue Plan approved by Congress in 2021 to public safety and violence prevention, including billions in funding for law enforcement.

Among them is Frederick County, Virginia, soon to be part of the Sixth Congressional District, which “has invested $20 million for provision of a new radio communications system to support mission-critical public safety communications within the county. The communications system will provide enhanced, two-way wireless communications capabilities to all public safety users.”

The irony of all this: Cline and every other Republican in Congress voted NO on the American Rescue Plan. “AOC and the ‘squad'” and every other Democrat voted YES. That is, Cline voted against Frederick County getting this public safety upgrade. “AOC and the squad” voted for it.

So, Congressman: Who is actually funding the police and who is just paying lip service while denying them funding?