In the News
J.D. Vance Called School Shootings “A Fact Of Life,” Which Obviously Hasn't Gone Down Well
J.D. Vance made several abhorrent comments about school shootings at a rally in Phoenix.
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This week, four people were shot dead at a Georgia high school by a 14-year-old. At least nine others were injured.
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When asked about what can be done to prevent school shootings, Vance briefly called what happened in Georgia an “awful tragedy” before saying, “If these psychos are going to go after our kids, we’ve got to be prepared for it.”
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“We don’t have to like the reality that we live in, but it is the reality we live in. We’ve got to deal with it,” he continued. Vance further claimed that Democrat strict gun laws will not end school shootings, saying, “The states with strict gun laws, they have a lot of school shootings. The states without strict gun laws, some of them have school shootings too. Clearly, strict gun laws is not the thing that is going to solve this problem.”
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“I don’t like that this is a fact of life,” he continued. “But if you are a psycho and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are soft targets. And we have got to bolster security at our schools. We’ve got to bolster security so if a psycho wants to walk through the front door and kill a bunch of children they’re not able.”
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Conversely, on Wednesday, Kamala Harris said of Georgia, “We’ve got to stop it, and we have to end this epidemic of gun violence in our country once and for all. You know it doesn’t have to be this way.”
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In response to Vance’s comments, the Kamala Harris campaign issued a statement saying, “We can take action to keep our children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Donald Trump and JD Vance will always choose the NRA and gun lobby over our children. That is the choice in this election.”
VP nominee Tim Waltz called Vance’s words “pathetic,” saying, “We can’t quit on our kids — they deserve better.”
Despite Vance’s comments, when you look at school shootings in the real world per state population, the states with stricter gun laws tend to have lower rates of school shootings per capita. In terms of overall gun violence, “In states where elected officials have taken action to pass gun safety laws, fewer people die by gun violence.”
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You can look at the data more closely here.
A reminder that the US surpasses every other country in the world by far when it comes to school shootings. This year alone, there have been more than 385 mass shootings, defined as an incident where four or more people died. Evidence clearly shows that where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths.
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To read more about what research says can actually prevent school shootings, click here.
Our thoughts are with those affected by the events in Georgia. Make sure to go to the polls.
