Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh is calling on Washington to put stricter gun laws in place in the wake of this week’s shooting in Uvalde, TX.
Walsh said the only way to put a stop to gun violence is to make the same gun laws applicable to all states. In short, that would mean a federal gun policy because he said the potential for gun tragedies exists everywhere.
“The same day we had the mass murder in Uvalde, we had a 13-year-old bring a loaded gun into his school at Ed Smith,” said Walsh. “We had shots fired across the street from an elementary school. The issue of guns in our schools is all around us."
The events of this week have prompted the Syracuse Police Department to up its presence at city schools, in part by adding another roving police detail.
“(It would) rove around the city to respond to issues with schools and proactively respond to schools where we do not have an SRO,” said Syracuse Police Chief Joe Cecile. “We’ve also directed patrol units to stop at schools in their territories when time permits, and just make themselves known to the school and administrator and ask if there’s anything going on that they need to address."
Walsh doesn’t rule out further local action, for example, local gun control legislation. And he has been vocal supporting federal legislation tightening up background checks among other things, but he said more needs to be done.
“Unless or until action is taken at a federal level as it relates to gun laws, unfortunately, we are going to continue to see these types of incidents,” he said. “And it’s horrific."
