House Active Shooter Alert Act proposes AMBER Alert-like system for notifying public of gun danger

In introducing the Active Shooter Alert Act (H.R.6538) to the House this week, U.S. Reps. David Cicilline (D-RI) and Fred Upton (R-MI) proposed creating a system similar to the AMBER Alert system for law enforcement to use in notifying the public of active, local gun violence.

AMBER Alerts are a decades-old alarm for which police can tap into the Emergency Alert System to notify the public of child abductions. This allows rapid alert distribution through radio, TV, electronic billboard, and text messages. The goal is to draw as much attention as possible to encourage swift resolutions to these cases.

Given the dangers inherent to active shooter situations, including the addition of victims from simply walking unknowingly into the line of fire, law enforcement officials have sought improvements to their emergency communication of such incidents for years.

“The Active Shooter Alert Act is a commonsense, straightforward solution that will help save lives,” Cicilline said. “Developing these types of alert programs is a significant undertaking that requires precise and intricate protocols, and some communities just simply do not have the resources or expertise for such a project. We have the federal infrastructure to provide this technology to every city and town across this country, and it would be a shame not to do so.”

Accordingly, the Active Shooter Alert Act would allow the Department of Justice to offer federal training, technical support, and best practices to local and state law enforcement to implement active shooter alert systems. An Active Shooter Alert Coordinator would be appointed within the DOJ to oversee these efforts and coordinate with subject matter experts on guidance for these alerts that would allow them to be dispatched in a way least likely to tip off a shooter.

The legislators said that this program would be available for law enforcement to utilize voluntarily to improve their system of letting civilians know to stay away and stay safe.

“As we have seen over the years, there is no place exempt from mass shootings. Whether it’s folks going to worship, kids at school, or, as we tragically saw here in 2016, a man driving an Uber right here in Kalamazoo murdered six people and wounded two more,” Upton said. “The Active Shooter Alert Act will give local authorities more tools to provide accurate real-time information to the community.”

The bill was also backed by U.S. Reps. Shelia Jackson Lee (D-TX), Victoria Spartz (R-IN), Mike Thompson (D-CA), Peter Meijer (R-MI), Ted Deutch (D-FL), and Nancy Mace (R-SC). It also earned the support of both the Fraternal Order of Police and the National District Attorneys Association.