Upton appointed co-chairman of new bipartisan working group focused on school safety

U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) has been named a co-chair of the new Working Group on Response to Parkland Shooting, formed as an arm of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus to help find solutions to gun violence in the nation’s schools.

“We all share in the heartbreak from the senseless tragedy in Florida,” said Rep. Upton on Feb. 28, referring to the mass shooting earlier in the month at a Parkland, Fla., high school where a teenaged gunman used a semiautomatic weapon and killed 17 people and injured more than a dozen others.

The Michigan congressman is being joined by state colleague and fellow Problem Solvers Caucus member U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), who will also serve as co-chair of the Working Group on Response to Parkland Shooting.

“Congresswoman Dingell and I are committed to finding common ground in this heated debate,” Upton said. “We both have been meeting directly with our local law enforcement officials, parents, teachers, students, gun owners, and other folks to discuss common-sense, bipartisan solutions.”

Rep. Dingell said it’s everyone’s responsibility to guarantee students across America have a sense of safety at school. “Following the horrific shooting in Parkland and the wave of gun violence across this country, we cannot afford to go to our corners and have the same politically charged conversation that gets us nowhere,” said the congresswoman.

The community meetings the lawmakers recently participated in also included mental health experts, prosecutors, the American Civil Liberties Union and other stakeholders, said Dingell, who noted that they all are interested “to find real solutions to the gun violence epidemic.”

Rep. Upton added that he and Rep. Dingell plan to continue their “productive work. We owe it to our constituents to try.”

Also following the Florida high school shooting, Upton helped mobilize 17 Republican colleagues in sending a letter to House Speaker Paul Ryan urging prompt consideration of the Fix NICS Act of 2017, H.R. 4477, a bipartisan and bicameral bill that would amend the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act of 1993, among other provisions, to spur mental health and criminal record information sharing between the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and state and local law enforcement agencies.

U.S. Reps. Leonard Lance (R-NJ), Charlie Dent (R-PA), Tom MacArthur (R-NJ), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Dan Donovan (R-NY), John Katko (R-NY), Ryan Costello (R-PA), and Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ) also signed the Feb. 23 letter to Ryan.