gun violence, gun control, protest, santa fe, march for our lives

In the Wake of Another School Shooting, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick Promotes Door Control Over Gun Control & Yes, He’s Serious

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There was yet another school shooting today, this one in Santa Fe, Texas. Ten people were killed and ten more were injured. It always feels so insulting and ignorant when Republican lawmakers refuse to talk about the gun violence epidemic, accusing those who try to discuss actual solutions of “politicizing” tragedy. But in a staggeringly insensitive press conference earlier today, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has outdone his party and his colleagues in terms of just how far one can bury their head in the gun violence sand.

Yes, Patrick has a solution, and it’s not gun control. It’s door control. As he sees it, school shootings aren’t a gun violence issue, they’re an infrastructure issue, and if only schools had fewer entrances, kids would be totally safe.

I don’t even know where to start with this? The issue of needing adequate fire exits? The fact that in an active shooter scenario, having only one exit for students is a spectacularly terrible idea? Maybe just the basic logistics of how long it would take for hundreds or thousands of students to get in and out of a school through one entrance/exit, even under normal circumstances?

Or maybe we should talk about how ludicrous it is at this point to keep denying that gun violence is even an issue? How do you look at what’s happening in schools and public spaces across the country, nearly every day, and think “You know what the problem is? Doors.”

No one should have to live in fear of being shot when they enter a public space, least of all children going to school.

By the way, this was Paul Ryan’s response to today’s shooting:

Congratulations, Dan Patrick and Paul Ryan, you’ve somehow found a worse response to our national gun violence epidemic than “thoughts and prayers.”

(image: Jim Young/Getty Images)

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Vivian Kane
Vivian Kane (she/her) is the Senior News Editor at The Mary Sue, where she's been writing about politics and entertainment (and all the ways in which the two overlap) since the dark days of late 2016. Born in San Francisco and radicalized in Los Angeles, she now lives in Kansas City, Missouri, where she gets to put her MFA to use covering the local theatre scene. She is the co-owner of The Pitch, Kansas City’s alt news and culture magazine, alongside her husband, Brock Wilbur, with whom she also shares many cats.