Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, focused on mental illness in her response to school shootings during a town hall in Iowa on Saturday, which prompted heckling from the crowd, The Hill reports.
During the town hall, a teacher described the amount of training she has had to do for an active shooter situation, asking when she could go back to focusing on teaching children. The senator said that the country has gone through many difficult moments in regards to mass shootings, as members of the crowd began to shout "do something," before Ernst moved on to discuss the death of Ed Thomas, a high school football coach who was killed in 2009 by a former player who struggled with mental illness.
"A lot of the incidents we've seen do come back to mental illness," she said. Members of the crowd then began shouting "no" at Ernst.
"We need to be sure that those that are showing signs of mental instability are able to receive treatment," she said once the shouts had died down.
The senator previously said in an interview with Radio Iowa that she has some concerns about talks of "red flag" laws that allow courts to seize weapons from individuals who are deemed a threat to themselves or others.
"What we do have to make sure is those that are law-abiding citizens are still able to purchase weapons. It's our Second Amendment right," Ernst said. "And that those that should not be able to gain access to weapons should not have the right, then, to purchase those weapons."
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