Breitbart News spoke with Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) over the weekend about the Nashville Christian school shooting and he stressed his conviction it is time to allow teachers and staff to be armed and to make sure would-be attackers know the teachers and staff are ready to shoot back.
We asked Clyde about the heinous shooting in which six people at the Christian school were killed by a 28-year-old transgender and he said, “This particular school, if it would have had an armed teacher or an armed faculty–you know three of four individuals armed sprinkled throughout the school–I think things could have been every different.”
He focused on the necessity of good guys with guns being present to stop a bad guy with a gun, and lamented, “Here, in the Nashville attack, the good guys with the guns were not in the school.”
Clyde then elaborated: “I think it’s very, very important that school teachers be allowed and encouraged to carry within the school. And honestly, to carry concealed for that matter, so nobody really knows who’s got it and who doesn’t have it. And post a sign outside the school that says we value our children and we will do everything to protect our children. If you enter this school with the intent of hurting our children we will stop you.”
He indicated there needs to be a switch in the mental paradigm so would-be attackers understand they are literally going to face lethal force if they enter the school with evil intent.
On December 13, 2018, just months after the Parkland high school attack, a commission investigating the attack voted 13-1 to arm teachers.
The Associated Press noted the commission recommended allowing “teachers who volunteer and undergo extensive background checks and training…to carry concealed guns on campus to stop future shootings.”
On November 21, 2018, Breitbart News reported Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri, head of the Parkland commission, said the investigation into the shooting had changed his views on armed teachers; that he went from opposing it to supporting it. He noted, “People need to keep an open mind to it as the reality is that if someone else in that school had a gun it could have saved kids’ lives.”
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.
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