Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, says he believes the way to prevent school shootings is with armed security officers in every school — asking a skeptical journalist: "Is it easy to get into your headquarters at CNN?"
In an interview on the news outlet’s "State of the Union" program Sunday, anchor Dana Bash grilled Crenshaw on his views about how best to protect children from mass shootings like the one that took the lives of three young children at a Nashville, Tennessee, school.
"We do need to have a real conversation on what’s happening here … because it’s so random and unexpected, it’s hard to prevent. … The truth of the matter is, if we had a minimum of two armed guards in every school … this wouldn’t happen," Crenshaw said.
"I would look to the thing that would absolutely stop this, which is putting armed [guards] in schools. That I know will stop this," he said.
When pressed by Bash, who asked if the answer then is "more guns," Crenshaw pushed back.
"No, the answer is armed guards … yes, more guns — the same guns that protect the president, that protect you all at CNN," Crenshaw replied. "Is it easy to get into your headquarters at CNN? Absolutely not. There’s armed guards there. There’s single points of entry."
"I think we should look at our schools as a place that is precious and have the same kind of security that your corporate offices do, that we do in Congress," he continued.
"You know if we consider a place to be important — where our children go to learn every day — it should have the same level of security as every other place, whether it’s a shopping mall or a corporate office that’s hard to get into."
Crenshaw added that "you’re not going to get rid of guns, and I’m not going to say that law-abiding citizens cannot defend themselves anymore and exercise their Second Amendment rights and think that’s going to stop mass violence."
Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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