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Dear Editor:
As voters consider their choices in the 5th Congressional District primary, there are some things they should know about Victoria Spartz.
While in the State Senate, Spartz had many chances to represent her constituents and protect kids from school violence. She repeatedly failed to do so, and even voted against a bill that would keep firearms away from dangerous juveniles like the Noblesville school shooter.
Noblesville Stands Together (NST) was formed by parents after the May 25, 2018 shooting at Noblesville West Middle School. Its goals are to push Indiana officials to provide better school building security, more mental health resources, and common-sense gun reforms. We support the right to bear arms, but it is far too easy in Indiana for people proven dangerous to get a gun. We advocated for improving background checks, Indiana’s Red Flag Law, and a child firearm access prevention law. In addition, NST proposed closing a significant loophole in Indiana’s gun laws.
Prior to NST’s advocacy, nothing would have prevented the Noblesville shooter from purchasing a firearm immediately upon his release from custody. Because the shooter was a juvenile when he committed the act, he was not found guilty of a felony, and therefore laws prohibiting felons from having guns did not apply to him.
This individual brought two guns to a school and shot a teacher and a student. Court records show that he intended to kill as many people as possible. He carefully planned this attack, studying other school shootings to maximize the amount of damage he could inflict. No one died that day due to the heroism of a teacher who risked his own life to save his students. The juvenile court will only retain jurisdiction over this individual until, at the latest, he reaches age 21. After that, under the law at the time, he would be free to purchase and possess firearms.
NST thought this was a no-brainer: If a person who planned and attempted a massacre at a school and gravely wounded two people while trying to kill them isn’t too dangerous to have a gun, who is? Who could be against keeping guns away from such a person?
Not surprisingly, the NRA was against it. While the NRA won’t admit it publicly, it worked behind the scenes to water the legislation down, delay, or defeat it. And their willing partner in this cynical and dangerous effort was Victoria Spartz.
Senator Spartz started the 2019 legislative session by flatly rejecting NST’s request that she file bills to address the school shooting in her own district. She ended it by appearing at a conference committee in the waning hours of the session and forcefully arguing against the juvenile gun prohibition, opposing fellow Republican legislators and her own constituents, effectively killing it.
The legislation was reintroduced in the 2020 session and ultimately passed, thanks to a strong bipartisan coalition of legislators who worked hard for it. Sadly, Victoria Spartz was not one of them.
Victoria Spartz once again chose to protect the gun rights of a school shooter. She voted no on a bill that delayed the time that must pass before a juvenile who committed a serious violent act could get a gun. (SB 16, Roll Call #11) Not only did she vote no, she spoke against it on the floor of the Senate, urging her colleagues to also vote no. Fortunately, 43 of the 50 Senators declined to take her advice.
NST’s mission is to promote bipartisan solutions that bring people together, regardless of politics, to prevent school violence. We’re trying to break through the partisanship, the polarization, and the divisiveness to protect kids in the place where they should be safe. We were shocked to have our own Senator opposing us in this mission. And today she proudly advertises her hard-earned NRA endorsement, adding insult to injury for parents whose kids hid under desks and ran out of their school to avoid bullets.
Hoosiers want leaders who listen to us, represent our interests, and act on our behalf, not in pursuit of extreme ideological agendas. We are tired of gridlock and paralysis in Congress. Consequently, we should carefully consider whether sending more culture warriors to Washington, D.C. is the answer.
On behalf of Noblesville Stands Together:
Beth Ballard
Tara Bushong
Brian Cross
Craig Crosser
Christi Crosser
Matthew Frechette
Cherryl Friedman
Susan Golightly
Katie Guerra
Apra Gupta
Michael Harlowe
Hyde Heckman
Holly Hochstedler
Nate Lambert
Stephanie Lambert
Anita Rogers
Steve Rogers
Jennifer Sochocki
Mindy Swift
This is BS! I’ll vote for Spartz because she is for 2nd Amendment rights for everyone. Making it sound like school gun violence is Spartz or any other pro 2nd Amendment politicians fault is ridiculous. How about we concentrate on security at schools to help eliminate attacks at schools be they guns, knives, bombs or any and all weapons. These whackos should be stopped before entering school.
How about she fight for legislation that helps our schools and the community have safer schools? Watering down legislation makes it harder to find ways to keep our community safe
Victoria Spartz does not represent my interests, she represents the gun industry’s interests. They don’t care who they sell their guns to, they just love to sell guns. I appreciate the efforts of organizations such as Noblesville Stands Together as well as Moms Demand Action for Gun sense in America in promoting sensible gun laws. I believe in a citizen’s right to bear arms, but not if they have attempted mass murder in the past. That’s just crazy!
I remember back when I believed the message delivered by politicians. I believed they wanted to make a difference. Now in my 50’s I know that every politician has sold their soul to some special interest group in trade for favors or campaign funds. I do NOT believe any of them. They show up after the shooting with all these messages of we’re so sorry, we support you, blah blah blah… but it’s more of the same. You have to show up at the meetings to try to present a false sense that you are standing with us but you are not. She is in bed with the NRA and taking someone’s gun away for the rest of their life that tried to kill someone does not stop others rights to carry, but heaven forbid we push through any change that would stop anyone who has committed any crime with a gun from ever owning one. Then all of a sudden we are somehow limiting everyone’s rights if we want to ensure that those we know are dangerous can’t own a gun. I get the NRA’s position is that they support responsible gun ownership and if that’s true than why not revoke irresponsible gun owner’s from having another opportunity to kill someone?
This is obviously a stretching of the truth designed to work against Spartz. Whether or not I vote for Spartz will have nothing to do with the unfortunate Noblesville School’s shooting. Trying to put the blame on Spartz is biased and assumes an ignorant public (which we aren’t).
I would like to thank NST for all their time and effort on this critical legislation and advocacy to get it done.
This is a great accomplishment and I’m absolutely stunned that anyone in the Noblesville community wouldn’t support it after the trauma of May 25th.
Clearly allowing this young man access to a gun upon his release as an adult is not a smart risk for any community to take.
Maybe she’d think differently if it were her 12/13 yr old child in that class taking a science test and was shot and dnd told yo run for your life and call 9-1–1! I never will forget that morning. Today marks 2 years. Scared for life. Very sad
I suggest anyone reading this article to be aware of the leftwing radical progressive message they are covertly spreading.
Being for 2nd Ammendment rights is in no way being for tragic school shootings.
What liberal group this clearly leftwing group suggests people to do might be smart voting the opposite of them. I didn’t know my vote UNTIL I read this blatantly biased and misleading letter. I know now Victoria Sparks has my families 5 votes.
Those whose names signed that letter, even the one I know, are despicable and to attack a candidate the day before an election. We all need to vet more closely those we hire to teach our children, as these teachers and those they recruited to support their leftwing cause clearly are deceptive and untrustworthy. Shame on all those who signed this biased letter.