The Texas senator called for enhanced school security, citing armed guards in banks, 11 days before a mass shooter killed five people in a bank.
Recent comments by Ted Cruz, a Republican senator for Texas, which cited the presence of armed police officers securing banks while calling for increased security around schools to protect against mass shootings, have resurfaced after an armed employee killed five people in a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday morning.
Police identified Connor Sturgeon, a 25-year-old who worked at the Old National Bank, as the shooter. Alongside the dead, nine others were injured, including rookie police officer Nickolas Wilt, who was shot in the head while responding to gunshots and remains in critical condition.
The shooting comes just weeks after Audrey Hale entered the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, and shot dead three 9-year-old pupils and a further three staff members before being killed by responding police officers. While gun safety advocates have used the incident to reiterate calls for increased gun control, others have said it showed schools needed enhanced security measures.
Following the shooting in Nashville on March 27, Cruz reintroduced the „Securing Our Schools Act“ and the „Protect Our Children’s Schools Act,“ both of which he had introduced in the previous legislative session, but which had not been passed.
The former would provide federal funding for school security measures including active shooter alert systems, metal detectors and „ballistic safety equipment for schools and responding law enforcement officers,“ while the latter would reappropriate unspent school funding previously designated for the coronavirus pandemic towards funding enhanced school security.
