Contractor Kevin Thomas responded to the May 24, 2022, Uvalde mass shooting by designing and building small bulletproof rooms that can be placed inside classrooms to give students protection in case of attack.
“I don’t control things at the lawmaking and legislative levels. So I was like, ‘Well, what can I do?’ This is what I can do: I know how to build things. I know how to design things,” Thomas said, according to the Washington Post.
Currently, his 8-by-8 bulletproof rooms have been placed inside West Elementary School in Cullman, Alabama, and Thomas stresses he will put them in any school that wants them. But he also emphasizes that he hopes the problem of school shootings is fixed before he has to build another bulletproof room.
Thomas said, “Those parents in Uvalde and Sandy Hook and Columbine and all the rest of them … we got to let them know, ‘We hear you, and we’re going to do something as individuals…because right now we can’t depend on the government.”
Texas and Florida responded to school shootings by putting programs in place to allow teachers to be armed for classroom defense.
California responded to shootings by making it illegal for K-12 teachers to be armed to shoot back at attackers.
On October 15, 2017, Breitbart News pointed out that Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed legislation, AB 424, to prohibit teachers from being armed for defense of themselves and their students.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and a Turning Point USA Ambassador. AWR Hawkins holds a Ph.D. in Military History, with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. Follow him on Instagram: @awr_hawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.