The Texas lieutenant governor was confronted with the nation’s school shooting crisis — and blamed everything but guns.
The Texas lieutenant governor was confronted Sunday with the nation’s school shooting crisis featured on the Daily News’ front page — and blamed everything but guns.
Days after ten people were killed in a high school shooting in Santa Fe, ABC’s « This Week » host George Stephanopoulos asked Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick to react to Saturday’s News — featuring the stunning fact that there have been more students or teachers killed by guns in U. S. schools than active duty military deaths in 2018.
Patrick pointed the finger at everything from abortion to video games, but not the deadly weapons that have been used to unleash carnage.
« It’s not about the guns. It’s about us, » Patrick said.
« Should we be surprised in this nation? We have devalued life, whether it’s through abortion, whether it’s the breakup of families, through violent movies, and particularly violent video games which now outsell movies and music, » the number two Texas pol said.
« Psychologists and psychiatrists will tell you that students are desensitized to violence, may have lost empathy for their victims by watching hours and hours of video violent games. »
The comments drew an angry reaction from Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed in the Parkland, Fla. school shooting earlier this year.
« I think those are the most idiotic comments I’ve ever heard regarding gun safety. Let me be clear, he should be removed from office for his failure to want to protect the citizens of Texas, » said Guttenberg, also appearing on « This Week. »
« I am raging right now, » said the grieving dad, who founded the group Orange Ribbons for Jaime in honor of his daughter. « I’m here this weekend at what was supposed to be my daughter’s dance recital, where they’re honoring my daughter’s memory instead of having my daughter dance. And for that man to make those moronic comments — unacceptable. »
Patrick went on to name Facebook, Twitter, and bullying as aspects of the « culture of violence, » but said that guns « are part of who we are as a nation. »
He denied that the fact that Americans of high school age are 82 times more likely to die of a gun homicide than their peers in the rest of the developed world had anything to do with the availability of guns.
« Guns stop other criminals from committing crimes, » he said. « We take the guns out of society, if you or anyone else thinks that makes us safer, then I’m sad to say that you’re mistaken. »
Patrick argued for arming teachers to repel possible attacks.
« We need our teachers to be armed, » he said on CNN’s « State of the Union. » « When you are facing someone who is an active shooter, the best way to take the shooter down is with a gun. Even better than that is four or five guns to one. »
Patrick harped on the need for fewer school exits, a point he previously made Friday after teen gunman Dimitrios Pagourtzis unleashed carnage at Santa Fe High School.
President Trump has pushed for armed teachers since the Parkland shooting.
Patrick pointed to a Santa Fe High School teacher who served in the Marine Corps. and barricaded his classroom after spotting Pagourtzis open fire with his father’s .38-caliber handgun and shotgun.
« Some feel had he been able to carry a gun he would have been able to stop the shooter — had it been his choice, » he said.
The lieutenant governor said students who survived the shooting and their parents made the same argument to lawmakers.
Texas law leaves it up to school superintendents to decide if teachers should be armed in the classroom. It wasn’t immediately clear what that district’s policy was.
A Gallup poll from March found that 73% of teachers opposed getting firearms, with just 18% backing the notion that a weapon could stop a school shooter.
Pagourtzis used his father’s legally purchased guns to slaughter his classmates and teachers, and Patrick said it’s up to parents to lock away their guns.
« Can there be gun regulation, gun control? I believe that starts at home, » he said on ABC. « Every person who owns a gun must be accountable for their guns at home. »
Nicole Hockley, whose son Dylan was killed at the 2012 elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, pointed out that the Texas school already had armed officers and active shooter drills.
« We’re simply focusing on the wrong thing, » said Hockley, the founder of Sandy Hook Promise.
« I disagree with the vast majority of what the lieutenant governor said. I do agree that we do have a problem where we devalue life, » she said.
« The fact that this shooting has not received a significant amount of coverage, that this shooting is not seeing a significant amount of action, to me that is devaluing life itself. There are 10 people who are dead who are not going back to their families. »
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said the lack of action on gun control amid a spate of school shootings can be explained by « a three letter word — it’s the NRA. »
« The American people are united overwhelmingly — gun owners, non-gun owners — on common sense gun safety legislation. Expand background checks, do away with the gun show loophole, » he said on NBC’s « Meet the Press. » « It’s Trump and the Republicans who don’t have the guts to stand up to these people, and that’s pretty pathetic. »
