Texas GOP Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said after the nation’s latest school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, that teachers need guns, parents should secure firearms safely at home, and schools should eliminate some of their entrances.
“We need our teachers to be armed,” Patrick said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Patrick also called for “gun control at home,” with firearms out of children’s reach, but declined to say whether he would support requiring that by law, saying Texas holds gun owners “very responsible.”
“Be sure that your kids and grandkids or anyone who might have access to your home cannot get your guns,” Patrick said.
The latest school shooting in Texas on Friday left 10 people dead and 13 others wounded. In the wake of the shooting, Patrick blamed the deaths in part on “too many entrances and too many exits.”
Patrick repeated his argument about entrances on Sunday.
“We need to get down to one or two entrances into our schools,” Patrick said, adding, “You have the necessary exits for fire, of course, but we have to funnel our students into our schools so we can put eyes on them.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott told reporters previously that the alleged shooter used his father’s legally owned shotgun and revolver.
Virginia Democratic Sen. Mark Warner, in a separate interview on the same program, lamented the latest shooting and called for an “all of the above” approach, including some degree of gun control and implored his colleagues to “evolve” on the issue.
“There are ways that we can put reasonable restraints without dramatically interfering with people’s Second Amendment rights,” Warner said.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Patrick blamed the nation’s culture, but denied guns themselves were the issue.
“We have devalued life, whether it’s through abortion, whether it’s the breakup of families, through violent movies and particularly violent video games,” Patrick said.
He added, “It’s not about the guns. It’s about us.”
NRA points to violent culture, Ritalin
Oliver North, the National Rifle Association’s incoming president, denied on “Fox News Sunday” that the Second Amendment was at the root of the frequent school shootings and pointed in part to television and the drug Ritalin.
“The disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence,” North said.
He continued, “They’ve been drugged in many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male, and they’re young teenagers in most cases, and they’ve come through a culture where violence is commonplace. All we need to do is turn on a TV, go to a movie. If you look at what has happened to the young people, many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in Kindergarten. Now I am certainly not a doctor. I’m a Marine.”
Mark Kelly, a gun control advocate, said in a separate interview on “Fox News Sunday” that Texas could pass legislation requiring parents to lock up their firearms and said he also supported hardening schools against attacks.
“Figure out a way to prevent people coming in the door with a firearm,” said Kelly, whose wife, former Arizona Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords, survived an assassination attempt in 2011. “At the same time, make sure that that irresponsible person can’t get the gun in the first place.”