Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese will be asking the Board of Supervisors to reaffirm local efforts to prevent gun violence and mass shootings as well as formally endorse the March for Our Lives school safety campaign, and similar movements to protect children.
This will all take place at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, and comes in the wake of the recent Florida school shooting that left 17 dead.
In addition, Cortese will be asking the board to sign off on his proposal to host a Gun Violence and Mental Health Summit within the next 60 days. The goal of this would be to address such gun-related issues, including mental health diagnosis information in background checks when purchasing firearms.
“This is a call to our community to come together to share ideas about curbing gun violence and keeping weapons out of the hands of mentally ill people who could harm others or themselves,” Cortese said in a press release. “That includes firearms retailers, mental health professionals, parents, teachers and anyone who believes that gun safety should be a priority.”
In June 2011, Cortese’s office launched an Older Adult and Mental Health Summit, which he plans to use as a template for his proposed gun and mental health conference.
Similar events have been scheduled elsewhere in the U.S.
Previously, Cortese’s District 3 Office worked with the County Counsel to explore the legalities of making some mental health information available to gun dealers before and during background check sales. The goal was to prevent people with severe mental health conditions from buying firearms.
As of now, California has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation, including a 10-day waiting period before firearm dealers can deliver the guns to purchasers. Still, it has not been enough to prevent school shootings, Cortese noted.
Yeah, like the Blue Ribbon Commission. All talk no action.
> In addition, Cortese will be asking the board to sign off on his proposal to host a Gun Violence and Mental Health Summit within the next 60 days.
I never thought I would accuse Dave Cortese of having a great idea, but this is REALLY A GREAT IDEA!
A summit is a conversation between the top leaders, about a fundamental political division, and right now in America there is a fundamental political division over the Bill of RIghts, especially Article One and Article Two.
Not surprisingly, Cortese’s limited vision and narrow mindedness led him to define the proposition of the summit too narrowly, but we can fix that:
“Gun Violence and Mental Health”?
How about “Freedom, Free Will and Personal Safety”, encompassing:
* the freedom to keep and bear arms,
* the freedom to BELIEVE IN and ADVOCATE the right to keep and bear arms without harassment and bullying,
* the freedom for children to attend safer and more effective schools than those provided by the government, and
* the freedom from involuntarily administered dangerous powerful behavior altering or psychotropic drugs that cause people to commit mass violence.
The participants in this summit must be the top opinion leaders and policy advocates on the principle sides of the issue:
President Donald Trump, Dr. Rand Paul, Dr. Ben Carson, John R. Lott, Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Bernie Sanders.
Cortese can be the “host” of the summit, and keep the participant’s water glasses full.
Hopefully, though, he could get some grown ups to help him provide an orderly venue and security for the summit and not have to rely on Sam Liccardo and his lethargic and poorly led police department to keep the Soros and Alinsky mobs in check.
A summit of this stature is required to address a national issue of this gravity and complexity, and there is probably no place in the United States more in need of a thoughtful, comprehensive, and rational review of Freedom, Tolerance, and Safety than California.
Thank you Dave for moving forward with action! I support you and will be there for the March . I honor you for your constant integrity.
Julie Johnson
Everyone wants to protect our kids from mass shootings, except the FBI and Parkland authorities, all of whom had multiple credible warnings about the nutball who killed and wounded so many in Parkland. Then there’s the Parkland cops who cowered outside while the killer kept shooting. What were they waiting for…for him to run out of ammo? We do not need more laws. We need more enforcement.