Donald Trump’s running mate and vice presidential candidate JD Vance has called American school shootings a “fact of life” while slamming the door on tighter gun control.
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On Wednesday morning, Colt Gray, a 14-year-old boy, opened fire at Apalachee High School in Georgia with an AR-15 assault rifle. It is the weapon most used by mass shooters in the United States.
Before being arrested, the teenager killed two students and two teachers, in addition to wounding nine others. It was the 416th school shooting since the Columbine massacre in 1999, according to an analysis by the Washington Post.
At a campaign rally in Arizona on Thursday, JD Vance suggested that such killings are part of the normal course of events in the United States.
“I don’t like to admit it. I don’t like that it’s a fact of life,” he said.
Mental illness and lack of security
Asked whether stricter gun control could help prevent these tragedies, Vance said that “taking guns away from law-abiding American citizens” would not solve the problem.
In keeping with Republican tradition, Donald Trump’s running mate simply prayed for the victims and their families, before blaming mental illness and the lack of security in schools for the tragedy.
“If you’re a psychopath and you want to make headlines, you realize that our schools are easy targets and we need to increase security in our schools,” he said.
In an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, Donald Trump also declined to comment on gun control. He simply said his team would “heal the world,” without giving details on the solutions he plans to implement to reduce gun violence in the United States.
Hours earlier, the Republican candidate had attacked the 14-year-old shooter, calling him a “sick and deranged monster” in a message published on his Truth Social platform.
On Friday, U.S. authorities said the gun was given to him by the young killer’s father, Colin Gray, who was arrested and faces four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of child cruelty.
