Texas lieutenant governor on school shooting: ‘We have to harden these targets’

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) said late Tuesday that the shooting at an elementary school in his state that left 19 children and two adults dead was “pure evil,” adding that leaders “have to harden these targets” to prevent would-be shooters from getting into schools.

During an appearance on Fox News’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” Patrick said that Texas “had done a lot of things” after the Santa Fe High School shooting near Houston, which left 10 dead and more than a dozen injured in 2018. However, he said more must be done.

“We have to harden these targets so no one can get in, ever, except maybe through one entrance,” Patrick said. “Maybe that would help, maybe that would stop someone.”

However, he added that the issue is “bigger than that.”

“We’re a coarse society,” he said. “We’re a society that is just at each other’s throats all the time, and we’re better than this as a nation.”

Authorities said an 18-year-old gunman entered Robb Elementary School on Tuesday and killed 19 children and two adults in the deadliest shooting at a U.S. school since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary, which killed 20 children and six adults.

Patrick also said he hopes President Biden will attempt to unify the nation after the tragedy.

“This is something that goes to the core of our soul, all of us, and I hope the president tries to unify and not divide us on this because we as a nation will always remember this.”

The Texas school shooting and another recent mass shooting that killed 10 people in a Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket have increased pressure on Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to bring gun control legislation to the floor before the July 4 recess.