JD Vance, addressing the recent school shooting in Georgia, described it as an unfortunate “fact of life” that he finds troubling. At a campaign rally in Phoenix, Arizona, Vance, the Republican Vice-Presidential candidate, stressed the urgent need for improved school security to prevent such incidents in the future. He criticized the current security measures, noting that schools are often seen as “soft targets” for individuals seeking to gain attention through violence.
In his remarks, Vance said, “I don’t like that this is a fact of life. But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets.” He further criticized Kamala Harris, the Vice President, for her approach to gun control, suggesting that her solution of removing firearms from law-abiding citizens is not effective. “Kamala Harris’ answer to this is to take law-abiding American citizens’ guns away from them,” Vance stated.
Vance called for enhanced security measures to ensure that anyone attempting to enter a school with malicious intent would be unable to do so. “We’ve got to bolster security in our schools so that a person who walks through the front door, if they’re a psycho wanting to kill a bunch of children, they’re not able to.”
Despite his call for increased security, Vance acknowledged the discomfort many parents feel about heightened measures at schools. “As a parent, do I want my kids’ school to have additional security? No, of course I don’t. I don’t want my kids to go to school in a place where they feel like they need additional security. But that is increasingly the reality that we live in.”
In contrast, Kamala Harris, who heads the new White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, supports both stricter gun control measures, such as banning AR-15 rifles, and enhanced school security protocols, like ensuring classroom doors do not lock from the outside, a reference to the Parkland school shooting incident.