This week, in the aftermath of mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, a freshman congressman from the Sunshine State thinks more national service can help crack down on the gun violence problem.
On Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., appeared on Fox News and talked to Martha MacCallum about his ideas.
“The answer is not broad bans on firearms for all law-abiding Americans,” Waltz said. “The Second Amendment is a fundamental right in our Constitution…and it absolutely has to be protected. If we want to look at different ways we should to keep firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill… or people that shouldn’t have them, absolutely.”
According to his office, Waltz is pushing “a national service program to incentivize young men to reintegrate into their communities” insisting it will help socially isolated young men.
“We have to get at the deeper ills here of why these young men are committing these heinous acts. We’ve had guns in our history – our entire history – but these shootings are new and it’s this generation. I think we have to take a strategic look at how we get these young men off their couch, off their video games and out serving in their communities again,” Waltz said.
The Northeast Florida Republican pointed to studies highlighting the importance of volunteering and community service including one from the University of Nevada-Reno which found “young people who volunteer one hour a week or more are 50 percent less likely to abuse alcohol or engage in other destructive behavior.”
This is not a new issue for Waltz who penned a piece which ran in the Washington Examiner in May calling for more national service.
Waltz intends to bring out legislation for a national service program.
First elected to Congress last year, Waltz is the first Green Beret to ever serve in Congress.
Reach Kevin Derby at kevin.derby@floridadaily.com.
Andrew Nappi
August 10, 2019, 8:44 am at 8:44 am
In the referred to editorial, the Congressman writes “The Israelis make a national service corps mandatory, but their population is 8 million, while ours is 329 million. While we can’t mandate a service corps, we can greatly incentivize it through other channels, like hiring incentives, college credits, or a G.I. Bill equivalent.”
There is no authority for such “incentivization” in the Constitution. As with all big government, every problem is a nail and every solution is a hammer proponents, Cong. Waltz sees the federal government as the answer to everything. It has never been, and it never will be. We already have both foreign and domestic service corps. MORE government is the last thing we need. Maybe Mr. Waltz should champion a federal study (since he has no problem with unlawful federal spending) of the effects of psychotropic drugs on young men from age 5-21, and how the imaginary diseases of ADD, ADHT and other excuses to justify drugs in search of a disease are harming boys and creating damaged young men.
Hooper
August 10, 2019, 9:17 pm at 9:17 pm
I agree, Andrew. Representative Waltz’s idea is a no-go from the get-go. He sees the problem solution through military glasses. The plan would be catastrophic.
What we NEED our politicians to do, is to investigate the reasons behind youth using drugs, and being given drugs by psychiatrists, physicians, and parents. It seems those medically prescribed drugs are merely a way to make the child sit down and shut up. Ultimately that erupts in violence, violence that the young person doesn’t really understand why he/she is committing violence.
It’s the PARENTS that must “talk” with the politicians and start saving their children. Even children who do not commit violence are inundated by the evils in our society through the brainwashing shock-treatment schools, use of CommonCommieCore, the videos, the video games, and now even the Netflix YouTube Hulu and others project the most vile photos offering gullible people to “click” and watch.
WHY are we letting our children be destroyed…. WHY?
There is a problem to be researched… the destruction of Family. Home. Faith that gives children love for others and for THEMSELVES.