With now another school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, it has become almost more common than not to wake up to the news of a school shooting. The shock part is gone, but the pain deepens each time as we fail to see change.
The Lieutenant Governor of Texas, Dan Patrick, had a lot to say following the Santa Fe High School Shooting. However, he made sure to focus on how Texas values their 2ndamendment.
In order to do this, he diverted blame to things such as violent video games, removing religion from school, and abortion: "We have 50 million abortions. We have families that are broken apart, no fathers at home. We have incredible heinous violence as a [video] game, two hours a day in front of their eyes, and we stand here and we wonder why this happens to certain students."
While I do believe that school violence encompasses multiple issues, and I agree with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick that there are too many entrances to schools, it is disturbing to hear him divert attention away from gun control by placing blame on abortion. There are many approaches that we need to take in order to end school violence; blaming abortion is not one of them.
In a time where students aren’t even surprised by a school shooting, where parents have to feel nervous sending their kids to school, and our country’s youth has to spend their days fighting for their safety, we need to stop making this a two-sided political battle. We need to do what we can to protect our schools.
It is people like Dan Patrick who are slowing down our progress. We need to turn our attention to change; change we can make, and change that works.