Texas pol calls for armed teachers after Santa Fe school shooting
The Texas lieutenant governor argued Sunday that gun-toting teachers would have stopped last weeks’ massacre at a high school that left 10 people dead.
“We need our teachers to be armed,” Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “When you are facing someone who is an active shooter, the best way to take the shooter down is with a gun. Even better than that is four or five guns to one.”
Patrick harped on the need for fewer school exits, a point he previously made Friday after teen gunman Dimitrios Pagourtzis unleashed carnage at Santa Fe High School.
On Sunday, he reinforced a rationale floated by President Trump after the Parkland high school shooting and panned by some educators.
“We need armed teachers trained,” he said, “Of course not just anyone who has a gun, (but) trained how to handle active shooters in the schools.”
RELATED: Victims of the Santa Fe High School shooting
Patrick pointed to a Santa Fe High School teacher who served in the Marine Corps. and barricaded his classroom after spotting Pagourtzis open fire with his father’s .38-caliber handgun and shotgun.
“Some feel had he been able to carry a gun he would have been able to stop the shooter — had it been his choice,” he said.
The lieutenant governor said students who survived the shooting and their parents made the same argument to lawmakers.
Texas law leaves it up to school superintendents to decide if teachers should be armed in the classroom, Patrick said. It wasn’t immediately clear what that district’s policy was.
President Trump floated a similar approach after gunman Nikolas Gruz killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14.
A Gallup poll from March found that 73% of teachers opposed getting firearms, with just 18% backing the notion that a weapon could stop a school shooter.
Pagourtzis used his father’s legally purchased guns to slaughter his classmates and teachers, and Patrick again called on parents to lock away their guns.
But he stopped short at saying there should be wider, stricter penalties for not properly securing weapons, noting Texans are already held liable.
“I'm saying that every parent out there needs to understand, every gun owner...you must control your guns at home and be sure they are locked up and kept away from others getting your guns,” he said.
