Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the solution to school shootings is fewer doors and more guns.
After a man armed with a rifle killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday, the state senator suggested that schools would be safe if there was only one way in or out.
“One of the things everyone agreed on is that these are not all open doors. Put a door in and out of the school and have armed police officers at that door,” he told Fox News on Wednesday.
Thanks to several 911 calls, armed police officers were at the door very quickly. Those officers shot the gunman and yet did not prevent the deaths of those 21 victims.
“If that were the case,” Cruz said, “if those federal grants had gone to this school when that psychopath came along, armed police officers could take him out. And we’d have 19 kids and two teachers still alive.”
He accused Democrats of calling for gun reform of “empty political currency” after a tragedy, and then promptly complained that Democrats had blocked legislation introduced nearly a decade earlier, with upgrades to “schools.” Will spend $300 million on federal grants to make it safer. Bulletproof doors, bulletproof glass and armed police officers.
The US has significantly more mass shootings than any other developed country, with few loose controls on who can buy guns and what types of firearms are allowed.
Elected Republicans have repeatedly called for increased security and mental health resources to protect children from shooting genocide, even though data has repeatedly shown that America is an outlier on guns, not mental health or school safety. .
House Democrats and some Republicans have passed two bills that would tighten gun sales rules by expanding background checks — measures that have consistently attracted the support of a majority of Americans in elections. But the legislation has stalled due to resistance from Senate Republicans, many of whom receive heavy campaign support from gun lobbyists.
According to campaign finance tracker Open Secrets, for example, Cruise has received about $750,000 during his time in office.
His proposal to cut on doors instead of guns received immediate online backlash. See response below.
