Iowa’s U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson on Perry school shooting: No way to 'legislate away this kind of hate'

CEDAR RAPIDS — Pressed on how she would address “sensible gun laws” in the wake of a Thursday morning shooting at Perry High School, U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson told town hall attendees that “anyone who even threatens this kind of violence has true hate in their heart” but that she wants to balance accountability with the Second Amendment.

“School shootings are absolutely terrible,” said Hinson, who noted Thursday morning that she had yet to be briefed on the shooting that was reported at about 7:37 a.m. at the Dallas County high school. The town hall, which drew about 30 attendees, started at 9 a.m. at Kirkwood Community College.

The Marion Republican representing Iowa’s 2nd District said the focus is on making sure law enforcement has the tools its needs to respond to — and prevent — such incidents.

“These are horrific tragedies and anyone who decides to go to school, a grocery, any public event with this kind of hate in their hearts is an absolute monster, and I think if we could legislate away this kind of hate we would have done it by now,” Hinson said. “I think there is a balance to be had here between protecting our Second Amendment rights in this country, which I've been a firm supporter of, and making sure that we can actually hold the bad guys accountable.”

(1/2) I am sending my prayers to the Perry community, especially to the families, classmates, and friends of the victims. This is a horrific and senseless tragedy. No parent should have to get that phone call and no child or teacher should be afraid to go to school.

— Ashley Hinson (@RepAshleyHinson) January 4, 2024

An attendee at the town hall from Hiawatha, who did not give her full name, pressed Hinson on the Iowa school shooting, where authorities said a 17-year-old killed a sixth-grader and wounded five others.

In Congress, Hinson has supported the Secure Every School and Protect our Nation’s Children Act to fund school resource officers and mental health counselors, strengthen school security and establish a way for the federal government, schools and law enforcement to better communicate. This would require federal agencies to provide training materials on a number of items, including mental health, to help schools prevent and respond to safety threats.

But she has opposed other measures such as the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which became law in 2022, that enhanced background checks for gun buyers under 21 and allocated funds for mental health and school safety programs.

In the hourlong town hall, Hinson touched on topics including how to improve child care access, crack down on the influx of undocumented immigrants at the U.S.-Mexico border and reduce “wasteful” government spending to curb inflation and reduce the more than $34 trillion deficit. Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell delivered introductory remarks.

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Inflation

Mike Moellers, of Cedar Rapids, said he’s getting less money through Social Security and that property taxes on his condo went up this year, while the federal government is “spending money like it’s water.”

“We have less money now than we did last year,” Moellers said. “ … The federal government is not doing its job to take care of people.”

Hinson, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said she supported a short-term continuing resolution to prevent a government shutdown, but she thinks it’s important the government stick to the proper process to pass spending packages. There’s a Jan. 19 deadline for some spending bills and a Feb. 2 deadline for more appropriations measures for fiscal 2024.

“We should all be really worried about that unsustainable fiscal path,” Hinson said. “It’s time for Washington to start budgeting more like Iowa families have to.”

Anne Salamon, of Cedar Rapids, said she filed taxes for a small business partnership she operates with her sister, and it took IRS officials so long to open the return that they considered it late. With insufficient IRS workers, Salamon said she didn’t understand why Hinson didn’t support the Inflation Reduction Act, which included funding “to hire more tax agents, to improve the technology and to go after the top 1 percent of people who they’re getting away with a lot more than just me and my small business.”

While everybody should pay the taxes they owe, Hinson said she didn’t want an “army of IRS agents … going after hardworking Americans.”

Immigration

After U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials processed more than 300,000 migrants at the southern border in December, Hinson said she joined GOP calls for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to resign or be impeached. GOP lawmakers have demanded action to stem the influx of migrants as a point of contention in negotiating funding for the war in Ukraine and avoiding a government shutdown.

Hinson lamented “overrun sanctuary cities” seeking a bailout from Congress, referencing a letter from the mayors of Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Denver and Houston asking for $5 billion in assistance.

“I understand many are coming here to try and seek a better life. … We have the most freedoms of any country in the world and I understand why we want to come here,” Hinson said, but there needs to be more legal pathways.

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Child care issues

Cedar Rapids school board President Cindy Garlock asked for funding to supplement state support for the district’s Truman Early Learning Center, a four-day preschool for 4-year-olds. She said this improves outcomes for children like reducing the likelihood they drop out of school and are arrested for violent crimes.

Garlock also asked that the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s promise of 40 percent funding be fulfilled, while many districts in the state run “huge deficits” with special education programs. The law requires states to give a free appropriate public education to children with disabilities ages 3 through 21. Iowa law covers this from birth through age 21.

Hinson touted her 2023 After Hours Child Care Act, which would expand Child Care and Development Block Grant eligibility to serve families who work outside of 9 a.m.-5 p.m. work hours, incentivizing providers to offer early morning or late night child care hours.

She also touted being part of a bipartisan group of lawmakers who supported the Maternal and Child Health Stillbirth Prevention Act, which passed out of the Senate in October and includes research and activities to prevent stillbirths.

Comments: (319) 398-8494; marissa.payne@thegazette.com