Massie sponsors bill to end federal requirement of gun free zones around schools

UPDATED— Just weeks after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conneticut, Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie introduced a bill that would end the federal law requiring “gun free zones” around schools.

Massie introduced the bill on the first day of the 113th Congress, and today the National Association for Gun Rights Facebook page showed Massie meeting with the Executive Vice President of the NAGR to discuss the bill, HR 113.

“Gun free school zones are ineffective. They make people less safe by inviting criminals into target-rich, no-risk environments,” Massie said in a press release. “Gun free zones prevent law-abiding citizens from protecting themselves, and create vulnerable populations that are targeted by criminals.”

The bill is one that was originally introduced by Former Texas Congressman and father of Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Ron Paul in 2007.

In an interview with 55KRC Talk Station out of Cincinnati on Friday morning, Massie told host Brian Thomas that the bill will “repeal unconstitutional gun laws that make us less safe, so the result is going to be that we are more safe”.

Massie’s fellow Republican freshman from Texas, Rep. Steve Stockman also introduced a similar bill yesterday.

Stockman told The Hill that the bills are a response to findings that violence in and around schools has increased since the gun free zone law took effect in 1990.

Stockman said in the article:

“By disarming qualified citizens and officials in schools we have created a dangerous situation for our children,” Stockman said. “In the 22 years before enactment of ‘gun free school zones’ there were two mass school shootings.
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“In the 22 years since enactment of ‘gun free schools’ there have been 10 mass school shootings,” he added. “Not only has the bill utterly failed to protect our children it appears to have placed them in danger.”