MOSES LAKE, Wash. – The Moses Lake Police Department offered a warning to students, parents and teachers this school year that verbal threats or jokes can cause issues for law enforcement given the continued threat of school shootings.
“Over the last 24 hours there have been a number of rumors flying around about potential school shootings in our community. These rumors all seem to stem from one conversation where someone said something out of anger that was dumb and thoughtless,” a police department social media post said.
The department went on to remind parents, students and educators in the Moses Lake School District that every claim of potential violence, even if made in jest, is taken very seriously by police.
“Unfortunately, we get reports like this throughout the school year, quite often after a tragic event in another part of the country,” the post said.
The reminder came just days after and the
Both major political parties have responded to the Georgia shooting in recent days. Vice President Kamala Harris argued for stricter gun laws during a campaign speech in New Hampshire after learning of the violence which killed four people.
“It’s senseless. It is. We’ve got to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know, it doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be this way,” Harris said.
Harris’ political opponent Senator JD Vance took a different approach during a speech in Phoenix, arguing that political leaders could do nothing to stop young people from attempting to perpetrate violence in schools.
“This is a fact of life…We don’t like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in,” Vance said.
Vance’s remarks mirror the sentiments of US Senate Republicans generally, who have blocked several attempts by Democrats to pass comprehensive gun safety legislation in the past two decades.
