In aftermath of Texas shooting, Josh Hawley focuses on prosecution and sentencing

In the immediate aftermath of the murder of 19 children and two teachers in a shooting at a Texas elementary school on Tuesday, Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, was focused on prosecution.

“We’ve got to do everything we can to put the people who commit these kind of crimes behind bars and send the message that we are not going to tolerate violent crime of any kind,” Hawley said. “That includes especially violent crime with firearms.”

Asked if there was any legislation he’d support to either prevent or decrease mass shootings, Hawley said he’d support increased sentences for federal firearms offenses. At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, he grilled Steven Dettelbach, President Joe Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, about his record prosecuting gun crimes when he was U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.

Never mind that the 18-year-old shooter in Texas was killed by police on the scene.

It is unlikely Congress will pass any legislation to address the issue of gun violence this week. In the immediate aftermath of the mass shootings, senators offered their thoughts and prayers to the victims and then scratched their heads when asked about a potential solution.

Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, who is a member of Republican leadership, said he is not aware of any serious conversations about addressing the issue.

Blunt, who is retiring at the end of the current term, said he is open to a red flag law, which would allow law enforcement to seize guns from someone if a judge determines they are a risk to themselves or others. There are versions of red flag laws across the country — at least 19 states have one — but so far efforts to pass one at the federal level have been unsuccessful.

“When people believe that other people are intent on doing harm to themselves or others, there should be some way to prevent them from having what it takes to do that,” Blunt said.

He said he’s been inclined to favor a red flag law for the past two or three years but went on to point out that New York has a strong red flag law and it did not prevent a mass shooting last week where 10 people were killed by a racist gunman.

Hawley said he’s skeptical about a federal red flag law. He has consistently pushed for stricter sentencing guidelines and, in Wednesday’s hearing, he asked why the number of federal gun crime cases pursued by Dettelbach’s office decreased over the course of his tenure, between 2009 and 2016.

Dettelbach said gun crime prosecutions went up and down depending on the year but he did not change the agency’s guidelines.

“Violent crime and gun crime should be a priority,” Dettelbach said.

The ATF, the agency tasked with enforcing federal gun laws, has been without a permanent director since 2015.

The position has required Senate confirmation since 2006 and during that time President Barack Obama has been the only president able to win Senate approval for a nominee. Biden’s previous nominee to the post, David Chipman, withdrew from consideration last year in the face of Republican opposition.

On the Senate floor Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, chastised Republicans for not supporting legislation to strengthen the country’s gun laws through background checks.

“If we can’t find a good, strong bill that has bipartisan support, we will continue to pursue this issue on our own,” Schumer said. “We have no choice. It’s too important. Lives are at stake. And I accept the fact that most of my Republicans are not willing to do what it takes to prevent this needless loss of life.”

Meanwhile Republicans have pushed to increase safety measures at schools. In 2018, they passed the Stop School Violence Act that gave money for school resource officers, increased security measures for schools, anonymous reporting hot-lines and training for school personnel.

During a hearing Wednesday, Sen. Jerry Moran, a Republican from Kansas, asked FBI director Christopher Wray what the agency is doing to prevent school shootings.

Wray listed many things the FBI does after a shooting, like providing support for law enforcement, before adding “that’s, of course, after the fact. We’re figuring out how to better get in front of it.”