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Jacobs, Zeldin discuss improved school safety, gun control positions during WNY visit

Congressman Lee Zeldin, a Republican running for New York Governor this fall, speaks about school safety during an appearance in Lancaster, NY May 27, 2022. At his side is Congressman Chris Jacobs, who is proposing renewed funding to recruit and train School Resource Officers as one component in increased school security.
Michael Mroziak
/
WBFO News
Congressman Lee Zeldin, a Republican running for New York Governor this fall, speaks about school safety during an appearance in Lancaster, NY May 27, 2022. At his side is Congressman Chris Jacobs, who is proposing renewed funding to recruit and train School Resource Officers as one component in increased school security.

Two New York Congressmen – one from Western New York and the other running for Governor – appeared in Lancaster Friday to discuss ideas for increasing school safety in light of this week’s tragedy in Texas. The local representative, Chris Jacobs, also explained the gun control measures he supports, and what he opposes.

Before he was elected to state and federal offices, Chris Jacobs spent seven and a half years sitting on the Buffalo Board of Education. He explains that in that role, he gained an appreciation for School Resource Officers. He has introduced legislation in Washington that would reauthorize the Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program to $500 million each fiscal year from 2023 to 2026. Thirty percent of hiring funds would be designed to pay for School Resource Officer salaries and benefits.

“I have seen, when I was on the school board firsthand, how effective SROs are,” Jacobs said. “They are on the premises, ideally, in one school all day long. They are armed and trained. But also they get to know the students, and the good ones really can pick up if something's wrong, if something is awry with the student, and do something. Initiate assistance prior to anything manifesting that is a danger to adults or children in that school.”

Hiring and utilizing SROs is just one item in his list of suggestions for improving safety at schools. He also supports single points of entry, pre-confirmation and proper identification for visitors, keycard access systems, updated camera systems, metal detectors and bulletproof glass. Some school districts, including Buffalo, already implemented some of these changes, Jacobs noted.

Jacobs detailed these ideas while making an appearance in Lancaster Friday morning. He was joined by Congressman Lee Zeldin, a fellow Republican who has his party’s endorsement in a bid to unseat incumbent governor Kathy Hochul in November.

Zeldin also supports beefing up SRO programs.

“The need for school resource officers is undisputable. And we have trained professionals who are highly capable to courageously respond, to be trained, to prepare others to communicate with law enforcement in the event of an emergency,” Zeldin said. “It's important for all school districts throughout the state of New York to have school resource officers in it. It's important that all of our schools are trained, there are experts who are volunteering their services.”

While in Lancaster, both elected leaders also addressed gun control ideas being proposed and debated. Zeldin took on two of Hochul’s proposals, one to implement microstamping on ammunition, and the other to raise the minimum age for AR-15 sales from 18 to 21 years old.

Congressman Chris Jacobs addresses Buffalo mass shooting, his stances on gun legislation Friday, May 27, 2022
LISTEN: Congressman Chris Jacobs addresses Buffalo mass shooting, his stances on gun legislation proposals

Zeldin suggests microstamping can be altered using household tools. As for Hochul’s other proposal, he believes 18-year-olds have a constitutional right to own firearms, noting that many as young as 18 are trained and ted with firearms while serving in the military.

“If you choose as an 18-year-old, if you're a 20-year-old here in New York State, and you want to safely and securely obtain a firearm for your personal self-defense, that's a Second Amendment right,” Zeldin replied. “Now, if you want to propose a change to the Second Amendment, that's a whole other debate. But the Second Amendment does exist. And for those law abiding 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds, they don't lose that right.”

Jacobs, meanwhile, supports raising the minimum age on AR-15 purchases to 21 years old. He notes that many mass shooters, including those in Buffalo and Uvalde, were 18 years old, and many other mass shooters have historically been around that age. If these individuals raise red flags as people who should not own guns, he explained, authorities might not get to learn that until the individuals in question are a little bit older. “These two individuals had background checks. And they found nothing. Now they may very well have had nothing, but in New York State with ‘Raise the Age,’ a lot of records of 17-year-olds are sealed or expunged. So we would not know about that at 18,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs also stated that if a bill to ban future assault weapon sales goes to the House floor, he’d support it. But he does not support a mass confiscation of those already purchased. He also supports a ban on sales of body armor to the general public.

He also explained why he rejected the recent Domestic Terror bill.

“I think that was an awful piece of legislation. It was window dressing. All it did was add another level of bureaucracy with no new funding,” he said. “It failed in the Senate, which everyone knew would be a fail. You slap together a piece of legislation a day or two after a horrific massacre to make political points, and that's what they did. It failed. Now my I urge my colleagues to really get to work. And I'm happy to talk about a true substantive piece of legislation. We need to stop politicizing this issue.”

Michael Mroziak is an experienced, award-winning reporter whose career includes work in broadcast and print media. When he joined the WBFO news staff in April 2015, it was a return to both the radio station and to Horizons Plaza.