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Big brain moment: Ted Cruz, Paxton want to arm teachers to stop school shootings
- As many as 21 people, 19 children and two adults, were killed at the elementary school on Tuesday
- The gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, was shot and killed by police
- It was the most deadly school shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown
Amid the ongoing debate over the Robb Elementary School shooting, Texas Senator Ted Cruz and the state’s attorney general Ken Paxton have come up with a suggestion that placing more armed officers in schools or giving teachers guns would prevent mass shootings.
As many as 21 people, 19 children and two adults, were killed at the elementary school on Tuesday.
Also read: Texas school shooting: What Democrats and Republicans had to say
The gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, 18, was shot and killed by police. It was the most deadly school shooting since the Sandy Hook massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were murdered.
Paxon, in response, reignited a debate that followed the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, suggesting that giving teachers guns could have prevented the tragedy.
Also read: Texas shootout gets to Hollywood: Uvalde-born Matthew McConaughey speaks up
Speaking to a news organisation, Paxton said that the one way to prevent mass shootings would be to make it “more difficult for people even to get in that point of entry,” by having “teachers and other administrators who have gone through training and who are armed.”
“First responders typically can’t get there in time to prevent a shooting, it’s just not possible unless they have a police officer on camera on every campus, which for a lot of these schools is almost impossible,” Paxton said.
Also read: Who was Salvador Rolando Ramos, the 18-year-old Texas elementary school shooter?
“I think you’re gonna have to do more at the school, because it typically involves very short periods of time, and you have to have people trained on campus to react,” he added.
In an interview with Fox News, Paxton also spoke in favour of arming teachers.
Also read: Who is ‘epnupues’, alleged Texas school shooter Salvador Ramos’ texter?
“The reality is, we don’t have the resources to have law enforcement at every school,” he said. “It takes time for law enforcement, no matter how prepared, no matter how good they are to get there. So, having the right training for some of these people at the school is the best hope.”
Senator Cruz proposed stationing more armed law enforcement officers at schools, saying this would be more effective than tightening gun control laws.
Also read: Why Brian Kemp’s vision for Georgia’s gun laws is scarily similar to Texas
“We know from past experience that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus,” Cruz told reporters.
“Inevitably, when there’s a murder of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it. You see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens,” Cruz added. “That doesn’t work.”
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