Texas’ Lt. Gov. Floats Combative Fix for School Shooting Crisis

Less than 48 hours after Friday’s shooting at Santa Fe High School in southeast Texas that left 10 dead and 10 others wounded, two of them critically, the state’s lieutenant governor came up with another curious fix for the problem of gun violence. This time, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick reverted to one of the president’s newest talking points.

In an interview with CNN that echoed Donald Trump’s remarks after February’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida, the Texas official called on the country to start arming its educators, in keeping with the Second Amendment. “Our teachers are part of that well-run militia,” Patrick told “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos, adding,  “It’s guns that also stop crimes.”

Shortly after the Santa Fe massacre, Patrick had named an improbable culprit: doors. “We may have to look at the design of our schools,” he said Friday. “And retrofitting schools that are already built. What I mean by that is that there are too many entrances and too many exits to our over 8,000 campuses in Texas. … There aren’t enough people to put a guard at every entrance and exit.”

Santa Fe High had taken multiple steps to avoid Friday’s tragedy, having two armed police officers patrol the school’s hallways as part of an “active-shooter plan.” According to The Washington Post, “they thought they were a hardened target.”

As of Friday, 29 students have been slain in 16 such incidents in American schools this year. Just 13 U.S. service members have been killed on active duty over the same time period.