After four people were killed in a mass shooting at Georgia's Apalachee High School, Vice President Kamala Harris's campaign shamed former President Donald Trump's running mate J.D. Vance for calling the gun violence epidemic a "fact of life."
Vance was asked by a CNN reporter at a Phoenix, Arizona event to elaborate on his policy proposals for ending school shootings and gave the following response that also called for strengthened security measures in public schools:
"Look, the Kamala Harris answer to this is to take law-abiding American citizens' guns away from them. That is what Kamala Harris wants to do. I don't like this, I don't like to admit this but I don't like that this is a fact of life, 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."
"And again, as a parent, do I want my kids' school to have an issue with security? No, of course I don't. I don't want my kids to go school where you feel you've got to have an issue with security but that is increasingly the reality that we live in."
You can hear what Vance said in the video below.
Harris later shared the clip of Vance's remarks to her social media followers and shut down his rhetoric immediately while standing for comprehensive gun control measures:
"School shootings are not just a fact of life. It doesn’t have to be this way. We can take action to protect our children—and we will."
You can see her response below.
Harris-Walz campaign spokesperson Ammar Moussa also responded to Vance in an official statement subtitled "Trump and Vance Think 'We Have to Get Over' and 'Deal With' School Shootings" condemning his remarks:
"Yesterday, Vice President Harris said 'it doesn't have to be this way' in response to another senseless school shooting. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance think school shootings are 'a fact of life' and 'we have to get over it.'"
"Vice President Harris and Governor Walz know we can take action to keep our children safe and keep guns out of the hands of criminals. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance will always choose the NRA and gun lobby over our children. That is the choice in this election."
You can see the statement below.
Harris For President
Many have echoed Harris's criticisms and called out Vance's statements.
Harris also addressed the Georgia school shooting in a speech at a campaign event in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, saying:
“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.”
She has previously called for universal background checks and an assault weapons ban and leads the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a marked difference from Trump, who did not offer policy proposals when responding to a question about the shooting during a Fox News town hall.
Trump said we live in "a sick and angry world for a lot of reasons and we're going to make it better, and we're going to heal our world." In January, following a mass shooting in Perry, Iowa, he said people "have to get over it — we have to move forward.”
