Press Releases

Rep. French Hill (AR-02) issued the following statement after voting against the Senate’s gun control bill, S. 2938, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, in the House:

“From the streets of Little Rock to the classrooms of Uvalde, despicable, inexcusable acts of violence continue to plague our society and the moral collapse in the value of human life weighs heavy on my heart. In the wake of tragedy, the natural reaction is to pressure Congress to act, and act quickly, which is understandable, but action may not reflect the appropriate antidote to the problem at hand.

“These shootings are not occurring only because the shooters are able to buy guns. Fundamentally, I believe that the lack of access to mental health care along with the increased isolation of our citizens, particularly our young adults and most vulnerable, has played an outsized role in many of the shootings we’ve seen over the years. Earlier this week, I voted for H.R. 7666, the Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-Being Act of 2022, a mental health bill that contains the bulk of mental health care provisions included S.2938, without undermining the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

“Ultimately S. 2938 does not address the underlying issues of gun violence in America, but it does increase the scope and size of the federal government’s control and funding of state issues. While there are provisions in the Senate bill that I support, I did not support the overall bill because it puts our constitutional freedoms at risk.”