Senator Ted Cruz has called for multiple vets and former military members to be stationed at school doors across the U.S. to prevent another deadly school massacre.
While speaking at the annual National Rifle Association conference in Houston, Cruz said that schools should model security after security measures at courthouses, including “limiting the means of entry to one entrance.”
Cruz continued, “Schools, likewise, should have a single point of entry. At that single point of entry, we should have multiple armed police officers or, if need be, military veterans trained to provide security and keep our children safe.
“We need serious funding to upgrade our schools to install bulletproof doors and locking classroom doors.”
The Texas senator then spoke about the six mass shooting sites he has visited since 2016, denouncing them as “horrible.”
“I was in Dallas in 2016, in Sutherland Springs in 2017, in Santa Fe in 2018, in El Paso and Midland Odessa in 2019, and now Uvalde. Each time was the picture of horror.”
President Donald Trump attended the conference, along with Cruz.
“Tragedies like the events of this week are a mirror forcing us to ask hard questions, demanding that we see where our culture is failing,” said Cruz. He also blamed “virtual life” as a fundamental reason so many shootings happen. He also it creates an “absence of community and faith and love.”
The senator also cited “broken families, absent fathers, declining church attendance, and social media bullying” as critical factors in younger people’s psyches being affected, leading to them becoming violent.
Senator opposes gun limits
Cruz opposes limitations to U.S. citizens’ rights to own guns.
“Many would still tell us that the evil displayed in Uvalde or in Buffalo derives from the presence of guns in the hands of ordinary American citizens.”
Cruz continued by saying, “It’s rather easier to slander one’s political adversaries and demand that responsible citizens forfeit their constitutional rights than it is to examine the cultural sickness giving births to unspeakable acts of evil. It’s far less comfortable to ask why despair, isolation, and violent hatred is so prevalent in America.”
The senator also said that taking guns away will only cause more deaths while blasting Democrats for blocking his gun violence legislation.
Republicans argue Cruz’s bill would have helped prevent shootings in the future by creating a federal task force to reprimand citizens who buy guns illegally and providing funding to secure schools.
“If they succeeded in confiscating guns, many more people would lose their lives,” said Cruz. He also cited the Obama Administration, saying a gun is used defensively 500,000 to 1 million times per year. “That means, if the left disarms America, those crimes will no longer be stopped.”
Senator Cruz blamed “woke” district attorneys for not “imprisoning the bad guys” while arguing the only way to stop violence is to “stop the bad guys.”
Continuing, the Texas senator said, “We must not react to evil and tragedy by abandoning the Constitution or infringing on the rights of our law-abiding citizens.”
Former President Trump also spoke at the NRA conference and called for a ‘drastic’ change in the nation’s mental health approach. Trump said the U.S. needs a “top-to-bottom security overhaul at schools.”
The former president also echoed Cruz, saying schools need to ramp up security measures by having strong exterior fencing, a single entry point, armed officers, and metal detectors. Trump also called for teachers to be trained and be able to carry concealed weapons in their classrooms.
The first since 2019 due to Covid-19, the NRA conference came just three days after the school massacre in Uvalde.
Eighteen-year-old Salvador Ramos shot two teachers and 19 students at Robb Elementary School. After working at Wendy’s to earn money, the teenager bought two firearms around his 18th birthday.
