Former U.S. Rep. Asa Hutchinson, the Arkansas Republican who will lead an initiative to strengthen school security in the wake of the Newtown, Conn, massacre, insisted Sunday that armed, on-campus security is an “important part of the equation.”
Hutchinson, appearing on ABC’s “This Week,” compared the proposal by the head of the National Rifle Association to the federal air-marshal program created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“Are our children less important to protect than our air transportation?” he asked host George Stephanopoulos. “I don’t think so. I think it’s a very reasonable approach.”
Hutchinson also said that addressing mental-health issues is another part of the equation, but imposing new gun-control laws is not.
“I would make the point when it comes to more restrictions on firearms in our society, that if we go down that path, we’re going to miss the focal point of providing safety,” he said. “I think that is really the wrong debate to have. I would rather focus on the safety side.
“Whenever you pass those kind of laws, you think, ‘We’ll, we’ve done something, we’ve somehow made our children more safe,’ Hutchinson continued. “So you go home. I don’t think the job has really accomplished anything if you take that approach, because our children will still be unsafe.”
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