The mass shooting at an Uvalde, Texas elementary school shows an armed officer assigned to a school wasn't enough protection and that “multiple layers” are needed to prevent attacks, Arkansas GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Hutchinson noted there will always be the possibility of human error.
“You have to have multiple layers of security to protect the children,” he said.
“You can't rely upon just one technique,” he added. “School safety is something that we all have to focus on coming out of the incredible tragedy that we see in Uvalde. We have to look at how we can better secure our schools.”
According to Hutchinson, the nation has to do better in identifying potential mass killers.
“You've got to have our private sector internet providers do better in using technology to identify these kind of dangerous, violent communications much quicker,” he said. “And then, of course, we have to be able to train our officers properly.”
But Hutchinson dismissed the idea of raising the age to 21 for buying automatic weapons as a solution. The Uvalde shooter was 18.
“AR-15s were around for 40 years before they were ever used in any type of mass killing or attack,” he said. “And so it is about the human heart. It is about identifying the culprits and going after them… I come down on the point that that is not going to be the solution. And it's going to cause more harm than good.”
The governor also said coming to a solution to stop such mass shootings can’t rely on an either/or solution.
“Are we going after what we see is the latest trend? I think it is more important to protect the schools, invest in that,” he said. “It doesn't have to be either or … I think that the senators coming together in a bipartisan way to talk about what we can agree on is important. I would like to see a similar bipartisan working group of governors, Democrats and Republicans, saying what is it that we can agree upon that we can address this and learn from this.”
“Whenever you're looking at the alarm bells, whenever you're looking at these very odd purchases — somebody just turned 18 — something has to trigger an alarm bell. Somebody says, 'let's alert law enforcement to this'. This is a concern. I think we need to look at those types of triggers that can alert law enforcement,” he added.
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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