The U.S. Congress is considering new gun legislation following the events at Uvalde, Texas where a mass school shooting took place.

The House passed a bill earlier this month that includes new measures for gun control such as red flag laws, investments in mental health and telehealth, and a review process for those under 21 wanting to purchase firearms. U.S. Senator Charles Grassley supports some of the bill including the areas with increasing school security and educating school personnel about these kinds of issues. He describes one area of concern whenever new gun legislation comes along.

“We’ve got to make sure that the 2nd Amendment is respected. We’ve got to know that if there’s any distraction from the 2nd Amendment that due process is involved.”

If the bill passes the Senate, it would be the first major overhaul for gun control since the Federal Assault Weapons Ban in 1994. Grassley tells Raccoon Valley Radio when they passed that bill, it was to sunset in 2004. At that time, Grassley says the Institute of Justice, within the Department of Justice, conducted a study of whether or not the ban on assault rifles had anything to do with reducing the number of mass shootings. When the study was published after 2004, there was no correlation between the two. 

“When it was brought up again in 2013, now that was after a lapse of nine years that we didn’t have that ban, Senator (Dianne) Feinstein (Democrat of California) the author of the 1994 legislation tried to get it re-established, where she passed it in the mid 60s (vote in the Senate) in 1994, it only had about 40 votes in 2013. Which proves that people bought the results of the study by the Institute of Justice.”    

Since the House passed its version of the bill, the Senate passed an initial vote 64-to-34 to move forward on the legislation. Senator Grassley was one lawmaker who voted against it because he received the text of the bill an hour before the vote was held.