The U.S. has "too many school shootings and too many children are being victimized in a place that should be very safe," Matthew Whitaker, former acting Attorney General in the Trump administration, told Newsmax on Wednesday.

At least four people were killed and nine others injured in a shooting earlier Wednesday at Apalachee High School in Georgia, according to state officials.

"It’s obviously a tragedy and my heart breaks for everyone that's affected by this," Whitaker told "Newsline." "I think there are a lot of lessons learned as we've, you know, kind of gone through this experience in American history where we do have too many school shootings and too many children are being victimized in a place that should be very safe, and I think that we need to make sure that those best practices go across all states.

"I heard earlier a discussion about a building level threat assessment. Obviously, that's critical. Obviously, law enforcement planning for these types of events. And there's so much that we could do to make sure that we're as safe as possible."

Whitaker said Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith shouldn't be blamed.

"I mean, obviously he's trying to get his arms around this right now, and figure out what's going on, and they're trying to run down a lot of leads as quickly as possible," he said. "And I'm glad to see [Georgia] Gov. [Brian] Kemp surge all state resources to this situation."

The shooting was the deadliest at a school this year. Investigators reportedly said a suspect was in custody but names of the suspect or the victims have yet to be released.

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